The Stranger
by TheCurtisclan
Summary: Louis, Shane, Ellie, and Joel have been on the road for weeks after the incident with David. They decide to take a break from all their walking, and enter a town to camp out like they do every night. Although the town seems unoccupied at first, but it definately is, by a figure that reminds Joel of his past, no less...
1. Memories

**Just a friendly reminder to, of course, read the stories I made prior to this one, entitled **_**Louis and Ellie's adventure **_**and **_**The Reunion.**_** Thanks. When I first started this series about a month and a half ago, I didn't know where this would go. I didn't even have the idea for Louis to be schizophrenic until I started to realize that he showed a lot of signs. But I realised it could make for some interesting experiences, and it definitely has. Right now, I've got subtle uses for it in this story, that I'll use later in the story. As always, thanks for reading my fan-fic, and would you kindly leave a review? Song Glowing Light by Amarate.**

"_**Schizophrenia**__: __a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behaviour, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation." __Definition of schizophrenia by the Oxford dictionary._

"Have you seen others before?" Louis asked, pulling another smoke from his newly scavenged carton. He had hand-rolled them several hours before when they had made a pit-stop. He honestly thought that they were worth the shit he had to take from the others. Joel, he didn't mind, as he only made a few comments here and there, but Shane and Ellie? It's like their way of getting him to stop was to annoy the shit out of him as much as they could. He lit the cigarette and took a puff from it. "For comparison, I mean." Shane walked beside him, while Ellie and Joel walked a bit further in front of them. Louis and Shane spoke as hushed as they could, so that the two in front of them couldn't eaves-drop on them.

"Nope. First pair I've ever seen. I got to say; at least I know what all the fuss is about." Shane was glad he could talk to Louis like a friend again. For three weeks after the incident with David, Louis just wasn't the same; avoiding Ellie as much as he could, often getting into arguments with Joel, pushing Shane away, and generally keeping to himself. But now, he was as normal as he would ever be. For a schizophrenic fifteen year old at least.

"You're so goddamn lucky man." Shane gave a chuckle.

"I wouldn't think so. I was under too much pressure to properly…" Shane clicked his fingers a few times. "Appreciate it."

"Man you're just being modest. I'm not the jealous type, even _if_ you got to see Ellie's…" They were interrupted from their conversation by Ellie slowing down to walk beside them.

"What are you boys talking about?" Shane and Louis parted so she could slide between them.

"Nothing Ellie. Just man stuff." Ellie giggled.

"You guys aren't men, so I don't know why you're talking about that." Louis gave her a playful shove. "God, it's so boring just walking." She called for Joel, and he stopped to look at her. "Hey, it's getting kind of late. Can we stop for the night?" Joel looked at his broken watch.

"I don't know, my watch says it's still pretty early." Louis and Shane laughed.

"Soooo fucking funny." She replied, as Joel chuckled as well.

"Yeah, we can find some place to camp for the night. My legs have got me tired anyway." Joel led the teens down the next exit ramp, where they continued to travel away from the highway. After about half an hour, they came across a small town that seemed free of bandits, and decided to camp there for a night.

_Shane could feel Marlene's eyes watching him, judging him from afar. But the Fireflies were his dream, a dream of freedom, and he wasn't going to let that deter him. His guide, a Firefly soldier named Melanie, led him through a series of alleys until they ended up behind a small apartment building. For safety reasons, they decided to blindfold all new recruits so they wouldn't know where the secret Firefly base was._

"_Alright, here we are." Melanie took of Shane's blindfold and he instantly shielded his eyes from the bright floodlights that surrounded him. When his eyes adjusted, he found himself in some sort of street, Marlene herself standing behind him. But they weren't the only ones there. He found four other people standing at his sides; a thin looking brunette white woman, a middle aged man with gray hair (what was left anyway), a strong darker skinned man, and a blonde boy that stood beside him. Marlene went and stood in front of them, and began to talk._

"_Alright people! You guys think you make Firefly material? That you can just memorize a bunch of rules and say you fight for freedom? I'm here to tell you differently! What we've got here is a training course that we use to train new recruits, a.k.a you! Now, you guys aren't just randomly put together, oh no, we specifically put you five together because we believe you can make a worthy squad to don the Firefly name! As Fireflies, you will require five things, each of which one of you have each! Agility, strength, wits, sacrifice, and courage is what you require as a squad! Now don't worry, this is a very simple test. Just get to the other side." _

"_Thank god," the woman mumbled. Marlene gave a small smile._

"…_Of the city." The woman's face flushed of color._

"_The city?" she asked._

"_You want to be Fireflies; you'll be doing this on a daily basis."_

"_But the military would kill us if they catch us out here past curfew!" The middle-aged man exclaimed._

"_And that's the danger you have to accept if you want to become a Firefly." Shane thought about the task; he wasn't worried at all. How hard could it be?_

"_S-so this has a c-chance to kill u-us, then?" the blonde boy stammered out._

"_Basically." Marlene walked over to Shane and the darker skinned man. "You two haven't said a single word about this. Most recruits are shit-scared when they take this test." Shane was the first to speak up._

"_Why should I be afraid? These are military soldiers, not skilled assassins. They wouldn't even stand a match to me, that is, if they see me before I take them out."_

"_I once took a full pistol clip to the chest," the other man said, "and just walked it off until I found someone to patch me up." Marlene looked towards Shane, then to the man._

"_You two are exact opposites of each other, you know that." She pointed to Shane. "You focus on your speed, your agility, the ability to sneak past with ease." She pointed to the other man. "And you focus on power, your strength, taking out your enemies up front and personal." She lowered her finger and put her arm at her side again. "I think you two will make the best team." The two guys looked at each other. "I'm going to issue a challenge to the two of you. If you guys manage to master each other's fighting styles, I'll make you both co-leaders of the squad. If you don't, your whole squad fails, and you guys will never become Fireflies. What do you say?" _

"_I'm up for it if you are," the man told Shane._

"_Then I guess we'll do it." The rest of their training squad groaned. There was no way these two could do this!_

"_Alright then, recruits! Once you pass through that fence you are officially in military territory, and they will shoot on sight! But that doesn't mean I don't have faith in this squad becoming the damn best in the Fireflies! You five ready?" They all nodded. "You will need to act as a team if you want to get through this, all right? Move out when ready!" And with that, the squad left, disappearing behind the fence._

"_Do you really have faith in them?" Melanie asked her._

"_Not a single bit. But that's why I put them in a squad."_

_The squad took cover from a couple of military soldiers that were stood a dozen or so meters from them._

"_I don't think we're properly acquainted," the middle-aged man said. "My name is Remy. What about you guys?"_

"_I'm Kara," the thin woman told them._

"_L-louis," the blonde kid stammered out._

"_Name's Maverick," the dark skinned man said._

"_And I'm Shane." Remy peaked out of cover at the two military soldiers. _

"_Okay, I think we can take them out if we maybe separate them." _

"_There's no time for that." Maverick told him, stepping out of cover. Remy tried to stop him, but was too late. The two soldiers spotted Maverick and aimed their rifles at the man, who towered over them._

"_Stop your ass right there! You're violating curfew!" Maverick grabbed the two soldiers and smashed their heads against each other, knocking them out. They slumped to the ground, and the rest of the squad got out of cover._

"_How'd you do that?" Shane asked him._

"_You just gotta focus all your strength. It's not that hard." _

"_Easy for you to say. You've got arms as thick as tree trunks!" Maverick gave a chuckle._

"_Years and years of exercise will do that to you kid." _

"_You and I obviously have different exercise schedules. You lift weights, I free-run." Remy and the others kept moving the way they were supposed to go._

"_You guys are supposed to learn each other's combat styles, so why don't you two take the roofs and get to do that without too many military soldiers in the way?" Remy asked them. It really sounded like Remy didn't want to be near them. Before they could say anything, Remy, Kara, and Louis left Shane and Maverick alone._

"_Well, we better find a ladder or something." Shane scoffed._

"_Watch and learn, muscle." Shane ran up the buildings wall and grabbed onto a window sill. He kept using the windows of the buildings as ledges until he managed to reach the top of the thirteen story building. He heard the radio attached to his belt cackle._

"_Holy shit, kid! That was amazing!" Shane got the radio from his belt._

"_You think you can do that?" He asked._

"_I doubt it. No way I'd be agile enough to do that."_

"_You'd be surprised at what you could do if you actually tried it. That's how I discovered parkour." There was no reply for a few seconds, but eventually he heard the tell-tale cackle._

"_I'll try then." Shane put the radio back in his belt, and waited there. He didn't know how long it took. Could've been five minutes, could've been twenty. After however long, he could hear Maverick grunting in effort. He looked over the side of the building, and sure enough, saw Maverick having some trouble at the last window._

"_You having fun there? Because I couldn't tell." Maverick made a 'Fuck You' face to Shane._

"_Can I get some help here? Come and pull me up!" Shane instead leant on the railing that was keeping Maverick from climbing up._

"_I don't know. What's in it for me?" Shane heard the railing creak a little._

"_Not getting your fucking ass kicked when I do get up there, that's what!" Shane gave a smile and grabbed onto Maverick's arm, pulling him up. When he was pulled onto the building, Maverick punched Shane in the stomach, sending him to the ground._

"_Ah shit man. What was that for?"_

"_For not pulling me up, asshole." Shane got back up and made his way to the end of the building._

"_We got a long way to go, Maverick. So we're just going to have to call a truce, all right?" Maverick nodded. "Anyway, this is a great time to show you the ways of free-running."_

_The pair made their way through the city via the rooftops. They learned a lot of things from each other, just as Marlene said they should. Although Maverick was as clumsy as he was fit, he was able to perform basic free-running skills. As for Shane, he managed to merge power and agility into one deadly fighting style. Maverick couldn't believe his eyes at the efficiency of this fighting style. Whenever they came across a soldier on the rooftops, Shane just switched from some rebellious teenager to a deadly assassin. It took them a few hours, but they finally made their way to the end of the city, where they stood atop a building looking down at the other three members of their squad._

"_So what now?" Shane asked the three below him, speaking through a radio._

"_I don't know," a voice replied, "we're going to check the building here for signs of anyone." Shane placed the radio back in his belt. Almost as if on cue, he heard his radio crackle again._

"_You boys think you'd make good Fireflies? Fireflies don't leave each other behind, you got me? I believed you five would make the best squad in the Fireflies, especially you two. But what would you do when the rest of your squad are in danger, hmm? This is the real test." The radio went silent._

"_What is she on about?" Maverick asked Shane._

"_I have n…" Shane was interrupted by the radio, once again, cackling to life._

"_Shane, Maverick, there's nothing in the building. I think Marlene might've been lying to us. We're gonna… Wait a second. I hear something. Is that?... Oh shit, OH SHIT! FUCKING MOVE PEOPLE, IT'S GONNA-" Shane and Maverick were blown off their feet by an explosion that rocked the building. When the Shane came to his senses, he realized the building was on fire, and the rest of his squad was trapped in the building._

"_What the fuck was that? Did Marlene try to kill us?" Maverick exclaimed._

"_No, this is just the second part of the test. C'mon, we need to save the others!" The radio turned on._

"_You have a minute to rescue your squad members. After that the next bomb will explode. Good luck." Shane scrambled to his feet, where he saw Maverick already entering the building. He decided to quickly follow him into the building. _

_When he entered the burning building, he saw Maverick grabbing hold of Remy and Kara, who were unconscious. _

"_Hey kid, go get Louis! I've got these two!" Louis nodded and headed downstairs, where he found Louis lying on the ground, barely conscious._

"_You okay?" Shane asked, holding Louis's body in his arms. Louis coughed a few times._

"_Why am I getting burned?" He asked. Shane was baffled for a second._

"_Because the buildings on fire!" _

"_No it isn't. I don't see any fire." _

"_Your fucking blind, aren't you?" Shane took Louis down a flight of stairs, where he found a dead end of a collapsed floor. "I got an idea. But it's gonna hurt, alright?" Shane ran into one of the rooms of the building, where he saw a window. "Goddamn it. Here goes nothing." Shane ran as fast as he could, and broke through the window. He found out how high he was very quickly. He managed to lose his grip on Louis and they dropped to the ground a few meters apart. Shane was dazed, but he focused just enough to see the rest of the hotel explode, and hear the words he's been waiting for this whole time come through the radio._

"_Congratulations you five. Welcome to the Fireflies."_

Shane, Louis, Joel, and Ellie found some kind of strange building to camp out in, the neon sign long gone to know what it was. They entered through a hallway, passing a counter along the way, and came across a gigantic room with a lot of lights above it, along with a D.J booth.

"Whoa." Louis exclaimed, running up to the booth, closely followed by Shane and Ellie. "Where are we?" Joel sighed.

"This used to be a nightclub. Stupid people would come here to drink and dance while loud, douchey music played." Louis examined all the gizmos and gadgets that the D.J booth held. There were a lot of switches, which he raised up and down, and a screen of some kind.

"This would've been awesome." He said, wiping the dusty screen with his sleeve. He almost fell down out of fright when the booth turned on and started to play some, as Joel said, loud, douchey music. When he regained his senses, he found the rest of the nightclub had turned on, and was confused by the flashing lights on the main floor. But out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a figure on the second floor looking down upon them. It was obvious Shane and Ellie had spotted the person too, as they both took off to get to the figure, Shane using the D.J booth as a boost to jump up onto the second floor, while Ellie took the stairs. Louis took the stairs as well, but when he got to the top, the figure, along with Shane, had jumped out a window onto the street. Ellie continued her pursuit, so Louis did as well, following her out the window. He hit the ground running, pursuing wherever the hell Ellie was going. When he got to the edge of the street, he found Ellie and Shane just standing there, dumbfounded. "Where the hell did that person go?" He asked.

"I don't know what happened!" Shane replied. "That person certainly has some free-running skills. They just ran up the building here and disappeared!"

"Well we need to find whoever that was!" Ellie exclaimed. "Listen, I'll go get Joel. You two can split up to try and find the person." They both nodded. Ellie ran back down the street to the nightclub.

"Alright Louis, you search down that way." He pointed to the street on the right. "I'll go left. Only engage if necessary, you got that? If it isn't, just radio me and I'll come to your position."

"You got it." Shane ran off in search of the figure, and Louis did as well. As he walked, he began to think. Who was this person? Why didn't they attack the group? Was the power turning on just a distraction, or was it to attract the group's attention to the figure? So many questions whirled around in his head, but he was distracted from his thinking by a loud noise coming from an alley beside him. He grabbed the machete that was held in a holster on his back. The machete used to belong to David, before Louis killed him, but he kept it as a reminder of how he managed to take out one of the most terrifying men he had ever met. Not terrifying because of his physical strength, but because of the strength of his words. He gripped his machete in his dominant left hand, and walked cautiously into the alleyway. "Hello?" _Hello? That's the best you can come up with? What, you think a bandit is just gonna reveal themselves with a friendly 'hey' back? Be threatening Louis! Make them want to reveal themselves so they won't get hurt!_ "Whoever the hell is out there, you better show yourselves! Because I ain't one for being trusting these days." No response came. "I'm not fucking kidding. I've killed more people than the years you've lived! If you show yourself now, I promise not to kill you!" He heard a chuckle. A female chuckle.

"You think you can make a promise?" A female voice replied. "It's quite sad how people make promises about the future. Because they have no idea what happens in the future. People say things like 'I will always love you, I will always be there for you, things will get better. I promise.' But, it's six months later and you don't love me, you aren't here for me, and things haven't gotten any better." Louis gave a smile.

"Ah, a poet I see. You know, I find quite a liking to poems myself, you know? Got an entire book in my backpack. Listen, I tried playing it tough. I'm truly not a ruthless guy. I ain't one to show no mercy."

"Well ain't that sweet? I'm glad about that. At least we share something in common." The voice hinted at a Texan accent. A lot like Joel's.

"Well why don't you come on out?" He put his machete back in its holster. "See, I put my weapon away. So can you show you-" He was taken to the ground by a force falling above him. The girl had gotten a jump on him. He had closed his eyes, but when he did open them, he couldn't take his eyes off the girl.

"You really aren't the smartest boy, ain't you? Never lower your guard." The girl told him. She had short, blonde hair, light blue eyes, and a body to die for. She was… beautiful. "You don't look like some sort of bandit. Not old enough. Who are you?" Louis snapped out of his trance-like state.

"Uh, I'm L-Louis. A-and I'm not a b-bandit. I'm friendly." Louis realized his goddamned stammer had revealed itself in his nervousness. The girl stifled back laughter.

"Why are you nervous? I ain't gonna kill you!" She began to ease up on pinning him down, and instead sat on his chest to keep him down.

"C-could you maybe, I d-don't know, get off of m-me?"

"I ain't going to risk you killing me if I didn't do this. Besides, I can tell that you like this." She gave him a smile. He couldn't lie, he did kinda like it. He just felt embarrassed that she noticed. The only thing keeping him from getting a boner was the short shotgun she kept in her hand. "Anyway, my name's Sara. Nice to meet you Louis."

"Sara?" Ellie's voice came from the end of the alley. "Your name's Sara?" All color had drained from her face. Sara didn't seem alarmed by Ellie's presence, as she didn't even make an effort to get off Louis's chest.

"Yeah, that's my name. What's wrong with it?" Ellie took a step forward.

"Sara? As in S-a-r-a-h?" Louis felt a bit confused as to what was going on.

"No, why would you assume that? My name's spelt S-a-r-a." Louis saw Joel and Shane enter the alley, and when Joel saw the girl, he stopped dead in his tracks.

"Joel, Shane, this is Sara." Ellie told them. Joel didn't make a move. He was too focused on the girl, and tried to push back a memory from his past that he wanted to forget.

"Ellie, what's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost." Louis asked her, not even trying to get the girl off his chest anymore.

"I swear I have." She tried to change the subject. "Uh, anyway, what are you doing out here all alone, Sara? Do you have a family?"

"Used to. Now I just kinda live alone back at my camp. When I saw you guys, I thought you were some hunters come to kill me, which is why I ran when you guys chased me." Shane gave the girl a smile.

"And you sure as hell put up a good chase. You must've had some training when it comes to free-running, because you sure as hell don't learn that by yourself."

"You must be a professional if you think that then."

"Three years training by a Firefly soldier by the time I joined myself." Sara gave him a smirk in return.

"I was being sarcastic, dumbass. I couldn't give two shits if you got trained. I learned from protecting my camp from some stupid group of bandits. When you've been alone as long as I have, you got to know the basics of avoiding conflict."

"I hate to interrupt this argument," Louis interrupted, "but can you get off my chest already?" Sara thought for a second.

"I don't see any compelling reason to do that." Louis groaned.

"Anyhow, we're friendly, all right? It's just us: three teenagers and a man in his late forties. We came here to find shelter for the night." Ellie told her.

"You're looking for shelter? My camp isn't too far from here. You can come and stay there for the night, if you want?" Ellie looked back at Joel, and gave him a questioning look. He stepped forward to speak.

"It would be appreciated." Sara got a bright look on her face.

"Great. It'll be nice to have the company." She finally got off Louis's chest, and put her hand out for him. He accepted the helping hand, and she pulled him up to his feet. "Real nice." She gave him a smile, and began to walk out the alley. They all followed her out, Joel keeping his distance.

"So Sara, how old are you?" Ellie asked.

"Turned fifteen back in January." Sara replied. "What about you guys?"

"Fourteen." Ellie told her.

"I'm seventeen." Shane said.

"I'm fifteen as well, Sara." Louis caught up and started to walk with the other teenagers. He took a pack of cigarettes from the pocket of his flannel shirt. He took one out, and began to light it.

"You're a smoker?" Sara asked.

"Yeah. If you're going to tell me it's bad for me, go ahead and do it." He took a drag from the cigarette and blew it out the corner of his mouth.

"I wasn't going to do that. In fact, I wanted to ask if I could have one." Louis got a look of surprise.

"I wouldn't of have guessed that. How often do you smoke?" He asked her, taking a smoke and lighter out of his pack and handing them to her.

"Just casual. It can really affect my fitness if I have them too often." She lighted her cigarette and gave the lighter back to Louis, which he put back in his shirt's pocket. Joel kind of cringed at the sight of this girl smoking, but tried to push back the urge to slap the smoke out of her hand. Sara looked over to Shane.

"I hate to ask this, but what's with that bandage around your neck?" Louis and Ellie looked over as well.

"I never noticed that before." Louis exclaimed.

"Uh, well, that's kind of a long story."

"We got time. It's at least fifteen more minutes until we get to my camp." Shane sighed. He really didn't want to tell this story, but he didn't want to be pestered for the rest of his life about it.

_Shane looked up from the railing he leant over. This was his second year into the free-running training, not that he needed to learn much more. He felt the hand of his trainer on his shoulder, and turned around to face him._

"_We got to go Shane. The military will be here any moment." Shane didn't move a muscle._

"_Why are you running away? We can take them!" His trainer scoffed at that._

"_This isn't the time for that! There are about a dozen of them, all heavily armed. We have to go!" Shane took out a gun that was in his belt. "You aren't a Firefly yet, kid! Just come on!" They were too late anyway. A group of soldiers busted through a rooftop entrance and aimed their weapons at the two._

"_Put your fucking weapons on the ground now!" Shane dropped the gun lazily from his hands, the determined look not wiped off his face. One of the soldiers made their way towards him. "Make a move, your dead!" Shane gave the man a smile._

"_Maybe you should listen to your own advice." Shane grabbed the man by his arm and used his gun to shoot the man through the head. _

"_Open fire!" One of the men shouted. Louis used the corpse as a human shield, making it absorb all the bullets. He flung the body down, and used his foot to kick his pistol up into his hands. He fired at the soldiers, killing three of them but using all his bullets. He flung the gun down and ran at one of the remaining eight soldiers, kicking his shins and sending him to his knees. He then snapped the man's neck. The other soldiers had reloaded their clips back into their guns and fired upon him again. He ducked behind an air duct, and hid there until the shots were not heard anymore. He jumped from behind the cover and gave one of the soldiers the one-two punch, making her keel over. He used her now lowered back to vault over, grabbing the soldier's knife from its holster. Using the knife, he plunged it into her neck and ran at the next soldier. He sliced the soldier's stomach and sent him to the ground, and then threw the knife at another soldier, which stuck into the soldiers head. He kicked one of the five soldiers in his stomach, and grabbed him by his leather uniform. He pulled the pin on a grenade in the soldiers belt and pushed him back into the group, sending blood everywhere. But out of the bloody mist a remaining soldier ran at him, and pushed him back against the railing. The soldier took out his knife and tried to plunge it into his throat, but Shane used his forearm to block the soldiers strike. With a lot of strength, the soldier managed to put a deep cut in Shane's throat, but Shane eventually pushed the soldiers arm back and caused him to slit his own throat. Shane put his hand on his neck to stop the bleeding and looked over to his trainer, who looked at him with disbelief._

"_Can we get a doctor?"  
_

When Shane finished telling the story and looked at his friends, they were all wide-eyed in disbelief.

"What?" He asked.

"Why did you never tell us about that?" Louis questioned him.

"Because you guys would make a big deal of it! I don't like it when people take the horrible things I've done and turn them on me to make me look like some awesome hero."

"Well then maybe, you should stop being so goddamn amazing!" Ellie told him. Shane groaned.

"See? This is what I'm talking about. At least Joel knows how I feel." He looked back at Joel. "Joel?" Joel didn't answer, and kept looking blankly ahead of him.

"Here we are." Sara announced. They all looked at a two story house, the long grass nearly covering the front door. They all stepped through the grass and entered the house behind Sara. As soon as they got in, Sara flicked on the lights and nearly blinded them.

"You've got power? How'd you get power here?" Louis asked.

"There's a bunch of solar panels on the roof that provide me power during the day, but since I'm not actually in the house most of the day, I'm able to save it until the night to use it. Anyway, allow me to give you a quick tour of the house, huh?" Everyone except Joel nodded.

"I think I'll just stay down here, if that's okay?" Sara nodded at him and started up the stairs. The other teenagers joined her, but Joel sat down on a chair and ran his hands through his graying hair.

Sara led them upstairs and gestured towards a couple of doors.

"These are just a couple of the bedrooms of the house. I've mostly stripped the beds of their sheets, but I'm sure I can rustle some up for you." She pointed to a door at the end of the hallway.

"That's the shower, if you want one. The house has a solar heater as well, along with a water tank. If you do have one while you're here, keep it short, because I don't want all the water wasted." She backtracked downstairs and entered another room. "This is the kitchen, but I use it to store all kinds of junk." Louis walked over to one of the shelves and examined one of the objects. He almost fell to the floor out of surprise when it made a noise and blinded him with a flash. Sara walked up to Louis and grabbed the object. "I see you found my camera. It prints Polaroid's of the pictures it takes." She took out the picture that had been printed, and put it up on the shelf. "I don't get to use this thing that much. You think, maybe, we could take a picture?"

"I'd love to." Sara looked back at the other two.

"What about you guys?" They both smiled and walked into the frame of the camera. Sara held the thing above them, and took a picture. When it printed, she shook it a few times to clear the picture. She smiled at it and showed it to the rest of the group, who smiled along with her.

Sara took the group into the final part of the house; the living room. She went and sat on the sofa, along with Ellie, and Louis and Shane sat on the ground. Shane noticed the television on, but tuned to some sort of weird menu screen.

"I thought all the television channels stopped broadcasting just after the infection hit?"

"They did. But that isn't T.V, it's connected to the console." Ellie felt confused.

"What's a console?" She asked.

"A video game console. You never heard of one before?" Ellie lit up at the moment Sara said video game.

"I've only heard of arcade video games." Sara laughed at that.

"Well, this one ain't coin operated. Play anytime you like." Ellie thought for a second.

"It is tempting. But I think I might play it in the morning before we leave, if that's okay?" Sara nodded to her. "Anything else you like to do?"

"I like playing guitar."

"Really?" Louis asked. "I play violin. Well, not so much anymore." His mind wandered to a few weeks ago, back to David. But he got distracted from that by a smile in his direction by Sara.

"Well, not to toot my own horn, but I am pretty good."

"Your skill kind of declines when a bandit breaks your instrument. Why don't you show us how good you are, then?" Sara took off into another room, eventually returning with a guitar. She sat back down at her original space on the sofa and tuned it a bit.

"Okay. You guys sing along if you know the words, hmm?" She began to play the melody.

[Sara]

_I can feel my body float across the sky_

_No more weight to hold me down I've got the ties_

[Louis]

_I just want to separate my heart and mind_

_I just want to separate my heart and mind_

_I just want to divide into the sky tonight_

[All]

_There is a light_

_That's filled with life_

_Inside we know there is a glow that fills our soul_

_And we will fight_

_A different taste_

_A different way to look at fate, a different face_

[Ellie and Shane]

_I can feel the blinding light into my eyes_

_I'd let it fill me up and change my life_

_I just want to separate my heart and mind_

_I just want to separate my heart and mind_

_I just want to divide into the sky tonight_

[All]

_There is a light_

_That's filled with life_

_Inside we know there is a glow that fills our soul_

_And we will fight_

_A different taste_

_A different way to look at fate, a different face_

_I'll let go_

_Let go of this_

_I'll let go_

_Stick to forget_

Joel walked into the doorway and leant against the frame of the door. He looked at the teenagers, and allowed himself a smile. Although Sara reminded him of his daughter, and her death, she also reminded him of the times before the infection he had had with Sarah. Maybe, just maybe, she might be worth taking along with them, if she wanted to.

[Louis]

_I will let go_

_Let go of this_

[All]

_There is a light_

_That's filled with life_

_Inside we know there is a glow that fills our soul_

_And we will fight_

_A different taste_

_A different way to look at fate, a different face._

Sara finished up with the song and placed her guitar down. For a moment, they just sat there and soaked in the moment. A moment of happiness they hadn't had in a long time. Sara was the first to speak up.

"I think I'm done for the night. I'm gonna get some shut eye."

"I think I might as well." Replied Louis. "It's getting pretty late anyway." They both got up.

"I won't be far behind." Ellie told them, yawning.

"I'll probably be up for a while more. You guys have a good sleep, alright?" Louis and Sara both exited the room, only Louis followed Sara up the stairs and into her room.

After a few minutes, Ellie eventually said goodnight to Shane and wandered out of the room. She ascended the stairs, but before she went into the guest room, she could hear Louis and Sara talking in Sara's room.

"_But we'll be leaving tomorrow. That ain't enough time, Sara."_

"_I know. What's with that Ellie anyway? What's the story with you and her?" _Ellie crept forward when she heard her name.

"_Ain't no story, Sara. We had a thing a while ago, but she broke it off."_ Ellie pressed herself just beside the door to the room.

"_Can you promise me there won't be anything else between you, if I do take up Joel's offer to come with you?" _Ellie didn't believe what she was hearing. Joel actually offered for her to come along? She was actually quite interested to hear what Louis's answer. There was no noise for a couple of seconds.

"_I promise."_ And then there was silence. Ellie felt a little curious and peaked through the door. And wished she never had. In the middle of the room, Louis and Sara were held in each other's arms, none other than kissing! Ellie wanted to just leave, but she couldn't take her eyes off the pair. They just stood there, Sara running her hands through Louis's short, blonde hair, until Louis hoisted Sara up and she wrapped her legs around him. Louis pressed her against the wall, and started to unbutton Sara's shirt, which is where Ellie drew the line. She stopped peaking and returned to her spot against the wall. How could Louis do this? But she remembered: she broke it off. So why did she hurt so badly by this? She began to tear up, and ran back down the stairs into the living room, where Shane sat on the couch, reading a magazine he had found.

"Ellie? I thought you were going t-" He noticed the tears streaming down her face. "Oh my god, are you okay?" She shook her head and sat next to Shane on the couch. "What happened?" She went ahead and leant her head on Shane's shoulder.

"It's Louis. He's up in that room with Sara."

"Doing what?"

"What do you think?" Shane got a sudden realization about what they were doing. "Oh." He put his right arm around her. "But didn't you tell Louis you two couldn't be together?"

"I did. I don't know why I want him now."

"Because someone else has him?" Ellie felt like she needed to change the subject, and Shane could see that. "Anyway, what's with Joel and him keeping distance from that girl?"

"He sure as hell isn't keeping his distance now. He's invited her along with us to Salt Lake." She took off her backpack and took out a picture and showed it to Shane.

"Who's this girl Joel's with? She looks like a slightly younger version of Sara."

"That's Joel's daughter, Sarah. She died in Joel's arms back when the infection started." Shane sighed.

"I couldn't imagine that. Losing someone you loved, only to have god fuck you over and give you another version of them." He gave the picture back, and Ellie resumed putting her head on his shoulder. "Why do you tell me these things Ellie?"

"Because you're the only one I trust besides Joel."

"Then why can't you trust me enough to reveal your feelings to me?"

"My feelings are just pushed down and down into my mind."

"By what?"

"By you." Shane looked at Ellie with sorry eyes.

"What?"

"You're just this awesome, amazing guy that anyone would be lucky to have." She began to lean towards Shane. "And if my mind wasn't on Louis right now, I'd totally give you a shot." Shane stayed quiet a few seconds.

"You told me a secret; I think it's only fair for me to tell you one of mine. I wasn't exactly born in America." 

"Where are you from then?"

"You might not believe this because I hide it really well, but I'm actually British."

"Bullshit."

"It's the truth. I just hated it when people would ask me to say something a specific way so much, that I adapted to have the weird accent you Americans have." Ellie chuckled, and she impulsively began to kiss Shane, who kissed her back and pushed her back so he lay on top of her. He began to run his hand up Ellie's leg, but stopped at her waist and pulled away from the kissing. "Ellie, wait. Are you doing this out of spite to Louis? Tell me the truth."

"Shane, back when we both met for the first time, I thought you were a complete douche to be honest. But then you actually trusted me with a secret of yours even though I was basically a stranger. Then you showed me some badass side to you, and I wanted to be with you ever since then, but I felt like I would be betraying Louis somehow. But not anymore. The real question is about you. Do you want a relationship with a girl that holds the vaccine to the virus?" Shane thought for a second.

"You know what? I'll take that chance." They began to make out again, Shane's hand continuing past her waist and under her shirt.

Joel lay in his chair in the kitchen, trying to nod off to sleep. But he couldn't. Old memories were gnawing at him, memories of his daughter. Was it wise to invite this girl along with them? He felt like he had to.

"Plus, Ellie needs a girl friend her age." He whispered to himself as he went to sleep.


	2. Confessions

**Song is Thief by Dan Bull.**

"_**He was so matter of fact about it, like he pulled out a weed or something. Like it had to be done… and that was one of the moments when your blood runs cold. Goose pimples up and down your arm. Cause' it turns out the person you thought you knew… was never there." Bonnie, The Walking Dead Video Game.**_

_Louis stood holding the lifeless corpse in his arms. He felt like throwing up, but he knew that wouldn't help him in the situation he was in. He let go of the knife that was plunged in the corpses stomach, but still didn't let go of the body. What was he supposed to do? Shane got up from where he was sprawled on the ground, and brushed himself off._

"_Thanks, Louis. But you went a bit overboard with that kill, huh?" Louis looked up from the body at Shane._

"_I don't know what happened. I did it once and I just… couldn't stop." He grabbed the gun that was held in the dead man's hands, and dropped the body._

"_You were going to have to kill one day, Louis. You couldn't just stay content with rendering people unconscious." Louis looked at the gun in his hand. A Colt 911, standard issue. He looked back up at Shane, and reloaded the clip in the pistol. _

"_I never wanted this. I didn't want this to happen." He raised the gun to his head, Shane shouting 'no' just before he pulled the trigger._

Louis woke up in a heavy sweat, and trying to gasp for air. Every single night it had been the same nightmare, his first kill, but with an alternate ending. He slid his hands through his hair, and returned them to their sides again. What time was it? He sat up in the bed he lay in, and looked across at the other side of the room where Sara's bed was. She must already be up, since she wasn't there. He got up and sat at the end of his bed. He felt super tired, but from his window he saw that it had been morning for some time now. Then again, he had spent most of the night up, unable to sleep after what happened between him and Sara. He got up from his bed and gathered his clothes he had chucked on the floor the night before. He got dressed and exited the room and descended the stairs. He found Joel in the kitchen, sorting through the contents of his backpack. Joel stopped what he was doing and looked up at Louis.

"Morning. How'd you sleep?" Louis wiped some of the tiredness from his face.

"Hardly did. The time I did sleep I spent in that damn nightmare."

"What kept you up?" Joel asked. Louis gave him a small smile.

"For about half an hour: Sara." Joel didn't know what he meant by that. But then it hit him, and when it did, he nearly knocked Louis out because of it. But he held himself back. "The rest of the night, I found myself in a little bit of a conundrum. Whether or not to tell Sara about my schizophrenia. She's a great girl, and I don't want to potentially ruin whatever we have between us by freaking her out." He grabbed a chair from the table that stood in the middle of the room and sat on it with his legs around the back of the chair, and slid one of his hands through his hair.

"I wouldn't know what to do any more than you do. It's really up for you to decide." Louis sighed.

"That's what I was afraid of."

"But, if you want my personal opinion, you shouldn't tell her. Every time you have told people about your condition, it's ended in disaster. Just look at what happened with David. I ain't saying she won't find out, but by then you guys have had time to get to know each other." Louis looked up at Joel.

"You really think so?" Joel smiled at him and nodded. Louis felt content with that answer. "Hey, what time is it?"

"Nearly noon." Louis got wide eyed.

"I slept half a day? Why didn't you guys wake me?"

"I didn't think you should've been disturbed. Besides, we don't think an extra day here could hurt." Louis got up from his chair.

"Where are the others?" He asked Joel.

"Sara and Ellie are in the living room, and Shane's taking a walk around town."

"Alright, I'll go and talk to the girls." He went to leave the room, but turned to Joel just before leaving. "I really appreciate talking to you Joel. I know we don't talk often but, thanks for… everything." Joel gave Louis a smile as he left.

Louis entered the living room, where Ellie and Sara were sat on the sofa playing a video game. Sara was wearing the same clothes she had on yesterday, but Ellie was now wearing a long sleeved cotton shirt and a pair of jeans. Louis took one glance at the T.V screen and was overwhelmed by what he saw.

"Is this what video games are like?" He asked, staring at the screen, which had two characters fighting on the screen.

"It's awesome, am I right?" Ellie told him, not taking her eyes off the screen. Louis sat down on the armrest of the sofa next to Sara. "You don't have to sit there awkwardly. I know about you and Sara." Louis looked at Sara, who shrugged at him. He gave off a sigh.

"Well, that's good. At least I won't have to pretend." He leaned and gave Sara a kiss, which made Ellie take a slight pause from the game.

"When's the last time you had a shower, Louis?" Sara asked.

"I don't remember."

"Exactly. You should go have one Louis. There are some fresh clothes in the bedroom next to it for you."

"Alright then. I want to talk to Shane when he gets back, so tell him to wait upstairs for me." Sara gave him a nod. He left the room and headed upstairs, and down to the shower.

Shane walked down the street, his jacket fully zipped up. It was fucking cold this morning, but he felt like he needed a walk. What did he do last night? He thought himself crazy for what happened. He walked into the nightclub they had entered when they first came to the town, jumped the counter of the bar, and started to make himself a drink. What would Joel think of him and her? What's more, they couldn't be a weirder pair; a bisexual boy and a girl that holds, quite possibly, the only vaccine for the cordyceps fungus. He finished pouring himself a neat whiskey and sat at one of the tables. He took the glass and raised it up to his mouth before he noticed a figure standing behind him. He downed the entire glass and waited for the figure to come closer.

"You know, it's rude to sneak up on people." He said, before turning around and smashing the figures head with his glass. The figure, a man from the look of him, backed up, holding his head. Shane got out his gun and pointed it at the man, but was grabbed from behind by another man. The first man let go of his head and took out a lead pipe. He walked up to Shane and swung it at his stomach, causing him to cringe in pain.

"Where the fuck is the boy?" Shane struggled.

"Who are you talking about?" The man hit Shane with the pipe again.

"You know damn well who!" He went to swing again, but this time Shane used one of his feet to kick the pipe back, and threw his head back, making the man holding him fly backwoods, his nose broken. The man with the lead pipe swung at him again, but Shane caught the pipe and knee'd him in the stomach. He picked up his gun and pointed it at the man with the broken nose, and pulled the trigger. He quickly turned around and saw the other man scrambling to his feet. He shot one of his legs, sending him back to the ground. Shane knelt down next to the man and placed the barrel of the gun on the other knee of the man, and looked him in the eyes.

"I should let you know, I once hung a man by the neck after he told me what I wanted to know. I can make your death quick and painless, if you don't fuck around with me. Why are you looking for this boy, huh?"

"Because I was told to!" The man said hurriedly. Shane cocked the gun, but kept it on the man's leg.

"That's awfully vague. Who told you to?" The man gave a weak smile.

"Do I detect a little bit of a Pommy accent?" Shane wiped the smile off his face by firing a round into the man's leg. He gave out a loud, pained scream and Shane put the gun on the man's hand now.

"I wasn't kidding. Who told you?"

"Man, you really are dark, kid." Shane shot the man's hand, making him let out a scream again. He looked through the man's pockets, and found a device. He turned it on to reveal a picture of the man and a woman that he had his arm around. He showed it to the man.

"Who's this?"

"My wife, but she died just after the infection began." Shane slid his finger up the screen, and he found the menu of the phone.

"Well, I bet she'll be happy to see you again." He got up and aimed the gun at the man's head. He began to plead, bargain with Shane. "You said I was dark. Is anyone not these days?" He fired a shot into the man's head, and the entire room went silent. Shane looked at the electronic device before putting it in his pocket and exiting the club.

Louis exited his room and started downstairs. He had thrown on another flannel shirt with horizontal stripes and short sleeves, a pair of denim jeans, and an overcoat that went down to his knees. He got half-way down when he saw Shane heading upstairs as well. Shane took one look at Louis and smiled.

"What the hell are you all dressed up for?"

"I ain't dressed up. I just threw on the most comfortable thing I saw."

"Whatever. Look what I found." Shane held up the device, which Louis instantly recognized.

"You found a smart phone?"

"Is that what it's called? But yes. C'mon, I have to show the girls."

"Shane, can it wait? I want to ask you a favor." Shane had already gone back down the stairs.

"You know how I always said I could rap, but you never believed me? Well, now I can show you first-hand proof." Louis laughed. He had to see this. He followed Shane back into the living room, where the girls were still sat on the sofa. "You girls ever seen a smart phone before?" He showed them the phone, and they paused the game to look at it.

"Where'd you find that?" Ellie asked.

"Never mind that. What's amazing is that this thing can do anything. Ellie, have I ever told you that I can rap?"

"With what you can already do, I wouldn't be surprised."

"Then let me show you." He placed down the phone, which started to play some music from its speakers.

[Shane]

_I'm a dastardly master thief  
_

_The chance of you actually catching me  
_

_Is but minimal I've maximum mastery  
_

_Mastered each of my skills to the max, you see  
_

_That's the key  
_

_I treat combat as last and least  
_

_Because I vastly prefer sneaking past with ease  
_

_But if I have to, I'll attack from the back, crack  
_

_Snatch your key and stash that in my knapsack  
_

_This isn't the way the planet has to be  
_

_Handcrafted skills killed by factories  
_

_Fat cats are treating talent nastily  
_

_Somebody has to redress the balance and it's me_

I'm a thief, a man upon a mission  


_I'm a shadow in the corner of your vision  
_

_Taking all your things with no need for permission  
_

_I'm a man upon a mission, I'm a thief_

_I'm a thief, a man upon a mission  
_

_I'm a shadow in the corner of your vision  
_

_Taking all your things with no need for permission  
_

_I'm a man upon a mission, I'm a thief_

_Freedom lies where I hide in the shadows  
_

_I desire to strike into the light  
_

_Like the flight of an arrow  
_

_I creep through the narrow streets  
_

_And the breeze sends a shiver through my marrow, see  
_

_I haven't much left in the war chest  
_

_So I best make a quick trip, visit Baron Northcrest  
_

_There's a right tyrant  
_

_So I might have to end my silence  
_

_And get a mite violent  
_

_Cause if I don't  
_

_Then Orion'll be vying for a fight  
_

_And his style and aggressiveness  
_

_In Rhetoric are quite diametrical to mine  
_

_He'd rather break a window  
_

_I tend to pull the blinds_

_I'm a thief, a man upon a mission  
_

_I'm a shadow in the corner of your vision  
_

_Taking all your things with no need for permission  
_

_I'm a man upon a mission, I'm a thief_

I lived in a realm that I doubt was jocund  


_But this new town's nought but rotten  
_

_Greed and disease and the sound of coughing  
_

_Drowned out by the crown in the House of Blossoms  
_

_We could recrown it in the House of Sodom  
_

_There's a sea of people out need help but sod them  
_

_Leave it long enough it'll be no doubt forgotten  
_

_Like the time Xiao Xiao said I felt her bottom  
_

_I hear the tick tock of the tower clock and  
_

_It means I better nip off out for shopping  
_

_Prowl atop inns, the crippled burrick pub  
_

_Down I drop into the city that I love  
_

_The pinnacle of criminals; I slip in from above  
_

_A night owl with the philosophic mission of a dove  
_

_When there's no one left to police the streets  
_

_And keep the peace  
_

_You best leave it to me  
_

_The thief  
_

_Peace_

_I'm a thief, a man upon a mission  
_

_I'm a shadow in the corner of your vision  
_

_Taking all your things with no need for permission  
_

_I'm a man upon a mission, I'm a thief_

_I'm a thief, a man upon a mission  
_

_I'm a shadow in the corner of your vision  
_

_Taking all your things with no need for permission  
_

_I'm a man upon a mission, I'm a thief_

The teenagers started to clap at the performance. Shane felt out of breath from his rap session, but gave a bow anyway.

"Guess you weren't lying then?" Louis asked.

"You can bet your whore mouth I wasn't." Louis gave a laugh.

"Calm down. Now can I talk to you?"

"Sure."

"In private." Louis motioned to the stairs, where Shane left the two girls back to their video games. They entered one of the rooms, where Louis closed the door and then slid down it onto the ground. Shane went and sat beside him.

"What's wrong?" Shane asked.

"Shane, I know this is gonna sound crazy, but…" He paused for a few seconds. "I think I'm in love with Sara."

"That does sound crazy. How the hell are you in love with her?"

"Shane, do you know how fast a boy is able to fall in love?" Shane shook his head. "Fewer than fifteen seconds."

"No way. You made that up just then, didn't you?"

"No, it's true. I learned that from my dad. I know it sounds stupid, but I do think I'm in love with her."

"You really think you are?"

"I know I am." Shane gave a sigh.

"So, what are you going to do?"

"Girls like romantic gestures, right?" Shane wouldn't know anything about that.

"I guess. Maybe."

"Could you tell Sara to meet me on the porch in the backyard in twenty minutes? I need some time to prepare." Shane thought for a second.

"All right then." Louis gave him a smile and got up and exited the room. But Shane just sat there for a few minutes, before exiting the room as well.

Sara exited out onto the porch of her house, just like Shane had told her to twenty minutes ago. She saw no sign of Louis, and the only really noticeable thing was a note that had been folded and stood on a table, entitled _How to Win the Girl of Your Dreams._ Sara felt a little curious, so she unfolded the paper and started to read it.

_Step one: The first and most important step, you have to find a girl. One you instantly feel a connection with._

_Step two: Hold yourself back from revealing your feelings for her straight up. This may deter her from you. Instead, learn more about her and make a choice of whether she's worth it._

_Step three: If she does feel the same way about you, you'll know from her discreet but noticeable signs._

_Step four: Finally reveal your feelings towards her, where she'll ask you a personal question. It may not sound right, but tell her what she wants to hear. Trust me; she'll know if you speak the truth._

_Step five: Wait a day, then get a friend to invite her to see you in someplace romantic, where she'll read this, and eventually notice someone behind her. _Sara looked up from the note and behind her, where sure enough, she saw Louis standing there. She looked back and continued to read.

_Step six: Reveal a secret. _

"Sara, I have schizophrenia. It's a mental disease that causes me to hallucinate, unable to tell the difference between reality and said hallucinations, to have rapid mood swings, and cause me to see people as a bigger threat than they really are." Sara said nothing and looked back at the note.

_Step seven: If you've completed the last step, then you're ready to say how you truly feel._

"Sara, I really like you. I know it's stupid, but that's really how I feel." Sara spoke up now.

"Louis, that's ridiculous! It's been a day. You can't expect me to feel the exact same wa-"

"Turn it over." Sara looked back at the note and flipped it over.

_Step eight: Give her an object with sentimental value to you, and she'll realize she feels the same about you._ Louis held out the palm of his hand, which held a bracelet.

"It belonged to my mother before she died. I thought it'd look beautiful on you considering I never use it." Sara got the bracelet from his hand, and put it on. She pulled Louis in for a long, passionate kiss, and they remained like that for the good part of a minute.

It was about five o'clock when Joel went to find Louis. He found him on the porch where he had confessed his feelings to Sara, where he was sat in a chair reading some sort of magazine he had found. He looked depressed to Joel.

"What's wrong, kiddo?" He asked, sitting on a chair just across from Louis.

"Is this really how stupid boys were back before the infection? Where all they cared for were women, football, and video games? Did no-one read a freaking book back then?"

"Back then, that was all they had to worry about. They had everything they needed, and more."

"That must've been nice. To not have to worry about infected or… hallucinations."

"Louis, people had schizophrenia before the infection. You ain't the first to have it."

"How did they live then? Wouldn't have people thought of them as outcasts or something?"

"Hell if I know. Never really knew much about it. Listen, from personal experience, there were three types of teenagers back then: The overly-social, popular kids that believed they could do anything they wanted, the anti-social that always played those stupid video games all the time, and then there was…" Joel gave a sigh. "… and then there were people like _her_."

"Like who?"

"Like my daughter." Louis looked at Joel with sorry eyes. "She was the best child I could ask for. She wasn't the perfect child, but that's what made her great."

"What was she like?"

"You really want to know?" Louis nodded. "Well, she made everything worthwhile. Having to drive her to her soccer games, but then seeing her win, that was worth it. Coming home from work and seeing her studying for an exam at her school, that was worth it. Hell, going with her to see those dumb teen movies, but seeing her crying towards the ending even though I was bored out of my fucking mind, _that_ was worth it. You see my watch? This was the final thing she got me before the infection. I asked her where she got the money from; she replied by saying 'I sell drugs. Hardcore drugs.'" Joel started to tear up.

"What was her name?"

"Her name was Sarah, with a H." Louis now realized why Joel had been wary of Sara at first. "And she looked a lot like our Sara."

"What happened to her?" Louis asked.

"She died. Let's just leave it at that."

"I…I'm sorry. I really shouldn't of have brought it up." Louis looked towards the sunset. "You know what makes everything worthwhile for me? Being able to see views like that. Knowing that I've lived long enough to see it. You just can't deny that view." They sat there for a few minutes, admiring the beauty of the orange sun before them. "I'm going to go ask Shane and the girls if they want to take a quick look around town. You want to come?"

"No, I'm good. I ain't in the mood anyway." Louis got up from his chair, and went to find the others.

_The icy road seemed like it stretched for miles and miles more. If the squad was ever going to make their way to Salt Lake, they'd need to be wary of the dangers it held. Louis stepped back towards the makeshift camp they had set up for warmth, and slid his hood off._

"_We could just as easily take the highway straight through and be there in a couple of days." Maverick told the squad._

"_In this weather we can't see ten fucking feet in front of us!" Shane exclaimed. "We need to wait out this blizzard. I mean, it's just an extra night." Maverick scoffed._

"_An extra night means an extra night of getting killed. And I know I sure as hell don't want to freeze my ass off waiting here."_

"_Maverick, I respect your decisions, but this is a stupid plan. If you're desperate to get there, then we can take a different route." Maverick brought his hand upon the makeshift table they lent on and nearly broke it in half._

"_Shane, I am the fucking squad leader and what I say goes!"_

"_You seem to forget that I am as well. How many situations have I bailed us out of because of my quick thinking?"_

"_Your 'quick thinking' has got us into as many situations as it has out of." Remy interrupted._

"_Really? Your fucking siding with him?" Kara stepped forward as well._

"_I kind of have to agree with Maverick. We can't waste any time here." Shane looked towards Louis._

"_You agree with me, right Louis?" Louis walked over to the truck._

"_I'm sorry Shane. Majority rules." Maverick gave Shane a smile and walked back into the driver seat of the truck. Shane shook his head as he took one last look down the road, and wondered how people like this were in the Fireflies._

It was about eight when the teenagers decided to check in to the first place they had been to when Shane, Louis and Ellie had come to town, the nightclub. Shane instantly jumped the bar and grabbed a couple of drinks from the shelf. Louis crouched down beside the bodies of two men.

"Shane? Were these bodies here when we first got here?" He asked Shane. Shane didn't answer. "Is this where you got that smart-phone from?" Shane turned to face him.

"They snuck up on me! What the hell was I supposed to do?" Louis examined the body of one of the men.

"Did you… torture this man?"

"He annoyed me."

"So you shot his legs and one of his hands? That's not to get someone to stop annoying you, that's trying to get information by torture. This is what they taught us in the Fireflies!" Shane felt rage rising up into him, and he let it out by throwing a glass bottle at the wall behind Louis, causing it to shatter and spill alcohol all over the wall.

"They asked about you, Louis." He told Louis, panting from his outburst.

"Why?"

"I don't fucking know. All they said was that someone told them to." Shane had almost forgotten about the girls, who were sitting at one of the booths to the right side of the room. "Whatever, I need a drink anyway. What'll it be, Louis?"

"I ain't a drinker." Louis told him.

"Well you sure as hell seem to be everything else." He replied. Louis sat down in the same booth as Ellie and Sara, annoyed. "What about you girls? You want anything?"

"Eh, what the hell? Pour me a glass of whiskey." Sara replied.

"I'll just have whatever you recommend." Ellie told him. Shane poured three glasses full of alcohol and brought them to the table. The teenagers instantly sparked up a conversation.

"How long have you been alone, Sara?" Shane asked her.

"Must be, what, two years now?" She replied, choking down her first sip of whiskey in a long time.

"That's pretty soon. What happened?" Ellie said. Sara sighed.

"I don't know." She replied.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, I don't know. My parents and older brother went out scavenging one day, and just… never came back."

"So you think they died?"

"I didn't say that." She looked down at the table. "Maybe they just abandoned me." Everyone at the booth felt depressed all of a sudden. "Do you guys have that moment in your life that you wish you could change?" She asked. Louis had enough of this conversation, and got out of his seat and headed out the front door. Shane got out of his seat to chase after him, but Ellie grabbed his shoulder before he could.

"I've got him," She told Shane, as she got out of her seat and went after Louis.

When Ellie got outside, she found Louis standing next to one of the cars in the nightclub parking lot. He seemed to be examining it as she walked up behind him and stopped a few meters away from him.

"What the fuck was that, Louis?" She yelled at him. He didn't look away from the car, and instead pulled his pack of cigarettes from his pocket, took one out, lit it and started to smoke it.

"I felt uncomfortable." He replied.

"No, that was bullshit. Why'd you walk out?"

"I don't fucking know. To take my anger out, I guess."

"On what?" Louis grabbed a lead pipe that lay beside him, and pointed it at the car.

"On this asshole's car. The bastard parked in two spaces. Care to join?" He grabbed another pipe that was a dozen or so meters from them.

"Louis, what's wrong?"

"Absolutely fucking nothing. And that's the problem. My life is great right now. I haven't had a hallucination for ages, I found out Sara feels the same way as I feel about her, and I'm finally becoming close with Joel. My life's as perfect as it's ever gonna fucking be!" He held the pipe towards Ellie. "I'm not a perfect person, Ellie. So why should my life not match my personality, huh?" Ellie looked from the pipe to the nightclub, then back again.

"Screw it," she said as she grabbed the pipe. She made a grunt as her lead pipe made contact with the passenger window of the car. No alarm went off, though.

"Well, shit. That's disappointing." Louis took a swing at the driver window of the car.

"Did you expect that to work?"

"More like hoped." He said as he bashed the hood a few times. Ellie, in turn, took one swing at the back of the car.

"This is really fucking fun." She told Louis. He gave her a smile in return, and reached inside the car and unlocked the passenger door. He searched through the glove compartment, eventually finding a wallet.

"Looks like this asshole has an asshole name as well: Zayne David." Ellie gave a laugh. "Never trust a man with two first names, right?" She laughed even harder.

"Right." She hit the back of the car again, causing the boot to open. It was stacked with boxes labeled 'D.J equipment.' "I think I know what this cock sucker does for a living." Louis's rage had turned to happiness now, and he threw the pipe away and sat down, leaning against the car. Ellie did the same soon after. "Are you ready to tell me what's wrong yet?"

"I was raised religiously, Ellie. I believed everything happened for a reason. That God controlled our lives. But recently, I've had my doubts. Well, I already did kinda, but only just started to recognize them."

"Well, I never really believed in that. No offense, but it's bullshit that people actually believed in that."

"None taken. I've just felt like I'm now in control of my life, and I just know that won't end well."

"Well you never know Louis. Maybe you'll be a good person on your own." She gave Louis a smile, but this only caused an awkward feeling in the air for both of them.

"W-we should probably g-get back inside, h-huh?" They both got up, and re-entered the nightclub.

Louis went and sat down at the table across from Shane again, while Sara and Ellie talked by the bar.

"What happened?" Shane asked

"Just took some excess rage out on the car of an asshole. I'm kinda tired though. I think I might head back to the house."

"Alright then."

"What, you're not gonna stop me?" He asked.

"How would I stop you?"

"I don't know. You always find a way to." Shane leaned back in his chair.

"How can you be stopped by something that's not real?" Louis felt confused.

"What?"

"Louis, no-one came with you tonight. We all said no." Louis's face drained of color.

"Stop Shane. Just stop."

"I gave you that smart-phone before you left, and told you to give it to one of the girls since you're unbiased. That's why you came here tonight. Louis, you took your pent up anger out on a car with Ellie eleven days ago, and the rest of this just never happened. Right now me and Joel are in the kitchen back at the house, and Joel's teaching me to play a little bit of guitar. Meanwhile, Sara and Ellie are in the living room playing video games like they have been all day. And all you've been doing tonight is sitting in that seat, examining that smart phone, wondering who to give it to. Look around you Louis. You're all alone." Louis was snapped from his hallucination to find the smart phone in his hands, and no-one around him. He gave a sigh and got up from his seat._ Isn't that ironic? You bragged about not having a hallucination in a hallucination. _

"Shut the fuck up. I didn't know." He told his conscience. _Isn't that your excuse for everything? You have to face the facts sometime, squirt. You can't cruise through life on excuses. Doesn't work that way. _Louis got outside the nightclub, where it seemed to be raining. He looked left, which was where the house was, and he looked right, where the center of town was. To be honest, he should've gone left. Back to the house. He'd sit on the porch in the backyard, and read a book. He'd go into the kitchen, and watch Shane fail at playing a simple melody. He'd go into the living room and watch the girls play video games, which of course Ellie kinda sucked at.

But he didn't. Instead he headed right, towards the town center, and thought about Sara's question. _Do you guys have that moment in your life that you wish you could change?_ He already knew the answer to that question. He'd go all the way back to eleven months ago, just after he was found by Marlene. He'd ditch Marlene and run back down those stairs. He'd jump over the dead bodies of those bandits and go straight out of that office building. He'd run down those streets and back to the military institute, and he'd jump the fence to get in. He'd find the girls dorm hallway, he'd knock on Ellie's door and say this:

"Ellie, I know this is weird to say, but exactly ten months from now we're gonna meet again. We're going to catch up on our lives, and you're going to shoot down any chance of us having a relationship together. You'll meet a boy, Shane, who you'll think of as a fuckwit at first, but eventually get around to liking. Just a month later we'll meet another girl named Sara, who I'll fall in love with. All that is ten months from now. But the thing is, I don't want any of that to happen. Instead, I want to spend that extra ten months with you, and then hopefully the rest of my life as well. I want to get married, have a couple of kids, get a pet cat, even though you fucking hate cats, but I love cats and I'll probably get one just to spite you. All that, because I love you Ellie. And even though I might love Sara even more, I always will, deep down, love you."

_But you didn't. Because you can't just turn back time and fix the mistakes of your past, can you?_ No he couldn't. Louis found himself in the center of town, where a fountain filled with grimy water stood. He felt the pelt of the raindrops under his overcoat, which was now soaking wet. He grabbed the smart phone from his pocket and lifted his arm up, ready to throw it into the water, but he felt his arm grabbed before he could throw it. He turned his head to see that a man, in his twenties probably, holding a small sack in his right hand and Louis's arm in his other.

"Finally found you. I told Gerald you'd be here." The man had a manic smile on his face.

"Wait? Gerald? He's alive?"

"He's been after you for a while, Louis. But now we've got you." Was the last thing the man said, before placing the sack on Louis's head and knocking… him… out…


	3. Insanity

"_10 years from now people will look back at Valve and see a company who genuinely cared about the games and the people who play games. We did not cut corners and may never have shipped on time, but at least lived up to its responsibilities to moving things forward."_ Gabe Newell, Valve.

"Hundreds of people die every day Gerald. Why can't he be one of them?"

"I gave you an order Daniel. You will obey it or you can get out." Louis found himself surrounded in darkness when he awoke in frenzy. All he could hear from his blocked ears was muffled talking, and he could sense two men standing over him.

"Oh great and glorious leader! I respect thou decision!" Louis felt a figure rip the sack off his head, almost blinding Louis with the many flood lights that floated around them. The man that pulled the sack off his head was the same man that had found him back at the center of town. And standing next to him was none other than Gerald.

"Well, I didn't believe in ghosts until today. Couldn't handle the land of the dead?" Louis asked him smartly.

"Wasn't really the place for me, you know?" He replied in his thick Irish accent, smiling at the teenager. Louis looked over at the other man, who managed to grab Louis by his neck and pull him up to his knees. The man was quite slender, wearing a T-shirt and shorts that were a couple of sizes too big for him, and his head was matted with slicked back black hair. He looked like he was in his twenties, but Louis could tell he was much older than that. "Louis, this is Daniel. He's my co-leader. And I use that term quite loosely." The man got a wide, manic grin on his face.

"Nice to meet you Louis. Put her there!" He held out his hand for a handshake, but Louis couldn't comply due to his wrists being tied together. "Come on! Don't be shy!" Louis looked at the man, not amused. "Wow. How fucking rude! Don't know what you see in this boy, Gerald." Louis looked past Daniel to the building behind them, entitled '_National Bank of America_'. The area seemed really secure, almost on par with security as one of the quarantine zones, as it had ten foot high walls, and a couple of dozen guards patrolling the outer perimeter of the walls. A radio on Daniels belt cackled to life all of a sudden.

"_Uh, Dan? The infected pits are getting rowdy. Jacob fell in a couple of minutes ago, and now they got a hankering for our brains."_ Daniel sighed angrily.

"How many times do I have to tell you fucking idiots? These aren't fucking zombies risen from the fucking dead! So help me god, I'll rip your fucking esophagus out of your fucking neck!"

"_I-I'm sorry sir… but can you come down and help me fix the shock fences? I don't have the electrical knowledge you do."_

"All right. Calm down Mikey. I'll come down in a few minutes. Oh, and there better be a beer that doesn't taste like piss down there when I get there." Daniel placed the radio back in his belt and turned to Gerald. "Can we go now? We can kill two birds with one stone."

"Alright. Come on Louis." Gerald grabbed Louis's right arm and lifted him up gently, bringing him to his feet. Louis pushed him away, and began to follow Daniel to the outer gate. Daniel went and banged his hand against the makeshift metal door.

"Hey! Open up!" He called up to the guard manning the lever that opened the gate.

"What's the password?" A voice replied.

"If you don't open this door now, I'll rip your balls off and shove them so far down your throat they'll come out your ass!" Louis could practically sense the fear these men had of Daniel. The harsh words seemed to do the trick, as the giant door lumbered open just seconds after. Louis had a long walk down the hallway ahead of him if he wanted to get to the actual entrance. He began to follow closely behind Daniel, and as he did, Gerald caught up with him and started to walk beside him.

"Louis, I should probably explain myse-"

"There's nothing to explain. End of story." Up ahead of them Daniel had stopped to talk to an African-American man that seemed to be fixing a cracked wall.

"What's up, my negro!" The man looked towards Daniel with an angered expression.

"Excuse me, motherfucker? What the fuck did you say to me?" He stopped what he was doing completely and looked at Daniel, whose happiness had turned to confusion.

"I can't say that word?" He almost seemed genuinely… innocent.

"No you can't say that word! It's like the number one white person rule!" Daniel stepped back from the angered man like a zebra would a lion.

"Whoa, calm down. I didn't know. Listen, how about as an 'I'm sorry' gift I give you double rations tonight? Does that seem good?" He outstretched his arms for a hug. The man sighed and went in for the hug. After a few seconds, Daniel suddenly jerked away from the man, latched his hand onto the man's head, and thrust it against the wall. The first time the man gave out a grunt. The second time, blood had splattered on the wall, and the third time, Daniel finally let go of the man's head and let his unconscious body slide down the wall. "Don't you dare tell me what to say and what not to say, because if you do, then there will be a lot more fucking blood on that wall." He started to walk away again as if nothing happened, grumbling to himself about 'incompetent workers'.

"Listen, Louis… I've done things I regret. And kicking you out was one of them." Louis began to finally listen to the heavily accented words. "Five years ago, I overreacted, alright? And I got extremely angry at you." Gerald gave a small sigh as he continued on. "But I accept full responsibility for my actions."

"Like trying to kill me?" Louis asked coldly. Gerald got insulted by this accusation.

"I never tried to kill you! My intentions were-and are still- to just find you and take you back. I might've been a bit irrational back at Boston, but my intentions were pure." Louis held back the urge to hug Gerald, to apologize for the irrational accusation he had made against him. Instead he stayed silent, and focused on walking down the echoing hallway. "So… I got you here for a reason. I want to start over, offer you a place back in our thriving community." Louis was surprised by this offer. He looked towards his feet for a few steps, pondering the offer.

He looked back up and said, "I've already got a group of survivors to live with." Gerald ran this through his brain a few times.

"Can they handle a steady workload?" He asked.

"I know a couple of them can. The other two though… they aren't exactly as masculine as you or I."

"How so?"

"They're teenage girls." Gerald let out a laugh.

"Does that mean they can't handle themselves?" Louis realized how sexist he sounded, and gave an awkward cough. "If they can fire a gun accurately, they'll fit in just fine." Gerald gave the boy a warm smile. They made it to the end of the hallway just a few seconds later, where there were a couple of men, armed with an assortment of tools, examining the entrance door, which was slightly cracked open. One of the men noticed the trio and held his hand in front of him.

"I'm sorry, but the main entrance is currently off-limits due to maintenance issues." He told them. Daniel slid his right hand through his thick hair.

"Why the hell do I keep you guys here anyway? Looks like we're gonna have to take the route through the pits." He pushed the man away and looked to the doorway beside him. "Get this door open, you good for nothing pricks." One of the men scrambled to the doorway controls and entered the key code to open it.

"Louis, I want you to brace yourself. The things that are past this door will scar you for life." Gerald told Louis.

"I've seen my share of infected and dead men before. I can handle myself."

"Trust me Louis. You haven't seen anything like this before. Just… brace yourself." The door made a loud whirring and slowly opened. At first, Louis could hear screeching of infected. Then… screams of humans. The door fully opened, and Louis nearly threw up at what he saw. Hundreds upon hundreds of dead bodies hanging by their necks from poles, over a pit full of various infected. Gerald gestured for Louis to follow him, which he did, not taking his eyes off the bodies. They began to walk down the pathway, which was lined with wire fences with an 'electric hazard' sign.

"What is up with Daniel?" He asked Gerald. "Where did you find him?" Louis looked around at the many walkways suspended in the air, which were stood on by bandits armed with pistols.

"We found him three years ago, just outside the Boston quarantine zone. He was holed up in one of the destroyed buildings with his wife and two kids."

"That guy had a family?" Louis questioned unbelievably.

"I know it's hard to believe, but he did. We were just about to rob them of all their stuff when Daniel asked us if there was any way they could join us. He said that he'd do enough work for the four of them, and I believed him. He lived up to that promise though. But then…we got attacked by a military patrol. His wife and both his kids were caught in the crossfire. He watched his own damn wife die in his arms. And as he sat there, sobbing for his deceased wife and kids, something just… snapped. From that point on he wasn't Daniel anymore. He turned ruthless. Like he wasn't human anymore." Gerald paused for a second before continuing. "We found another family on the move here. Mum, Dad, and a single kid. The rest of us spared them; we didn't want to kill a family! But Daniel, he went one step forward from just killing them. He butchered the parent's right in front of the kid, slicing their stomachs and letting them bleed to death right in front of him." Gerald stopped talking suddenly, the memory haunting him.

"What happened to the boy?" Gerald kept his eyes off Louis.

"He's hanging from the branch of a tree just off Washington." He told Louis coldly. Louis shut up now, and just followed Daniel down the winding path. They eventually stopped at a ladder, which Daniel quickly ascended. He made his way down the walkway and up to a man, who was stood next to a young woman. The woman seemed to look scared.

"Okay Mike, what the fuck is wrong?" Daniel asked quickly.

"Jacob fell into the pit, Dan! That's the third time someone has accidently fallen in there. I can still hear Jacob's screams." The man said.

"So?" Daniel asked him.

"Well, we need to get the electricity routed to the fences, because these infected want more and more flesh. Either that, or we have a breakout on our hands." Daniel gave a long sigh and shook his head.

"Well, it'd be rude to leave them hanging." Daniel proceeded to grab Mike and hold his flailing body over the pit.

"Sir, please don't! I'm sorry!" The man pleaded. Daniel let out an angered scream.

"Can't handle the bandit life? Can't handle society? Can't handle the mental instabilities that it brings? Well I can fix that!" Daniel threw him off the walkway and into the pit. As the many infected surrounded him, he let out a series of excruciating screams before going silent. Daniel looked towards the woman. "I'm awfully sorry aboot that. My friend there is a little dim witted." The woman said nothing. "Whoops a daisy, my accent seems to be showing." The woman just looked him in the eyes with fear. "What? You fancy Americans don't like to talk to Canadians? Do I put you off? I'm sorry I don't live up to your expectations!" He kicked the woman off the walkway, but she didn't fall into the pit. Instead, she fell a meter down the walkway and hung there by a rope around her neck, struggling for a half a minute before going still.

"Despite his insanity, Daniel is one of the smartest guys I know." Gerald interrupted Louis's focus on the horrors before him. "Apparently before the infection, he had gone to Harvard and got a PHD in astrology and astronomy. He even worked as a teacher at a high school for a year before the infection."

"How old is he?"

"He doesn't look it, but he's about forty six this year." Gerald told him. Louis was surprised.

"How does a man like that keep such good care of himself?"

"A combination of not giving a shit about other people, and vigorous exercise." Louis could understand that. Daniel made his way back down the ladder and stood in front of the pair. "I should probably send out a patrol to pick up your friends." Daniel lost all expression.

"We're letting his friends survive?" Gerald gave a slow nod. "Well, I might or might not have already sent out a squad to eliminate them."

Shane woke with a yawn on the couch where he slept. Today was the day they were leaving to continue to Salt Lake City. He slowly sat up on the couch, wiping his hand across his face as he did so. He spotted Ellie sitting on the window sill of the living room, one foot up on the window sill, the other on the ground. The bright orange sun beamed in from around her body, causing a shadow to cast on Shane. She seemed distressed.

"Ellie, are you okay?" He asked her uncertainly. After a few seconds she comprehended his question and looked towards him.

"Louis didn't come back from the nightclub last night." She answered. Shane got up from the sofa and walked over to Ellie.

"He didn't?" Ellie shook her head. Shane looked out the window into the ruined town, plagued by weeds growing through the cement pathways. "I'm sure he's fine. He can handle himself." At least, that's what he believed. "He'll be back soon. Then we can head to Salt Lake." He smiled at her, which always seemed to comfort Ellie, and gave her a kiss. When he pulled back, his smile faded. Ellie looked towards where he was looking outside, and saw a small, black minivan pull up outside the house. "Ellie, get down." Shane whispered. The tinted black window slowly winded down, and a small Mac 10 appeared outside the window. "GET DOWN!" Shane shouted, pulling Ellie to the carpeted floor. For the next five seconds, all that was heard was a hail of bullets smashing the glass of the window. When the bullets stopped, Shane heard a couple of doors open up and slam shut. Shane let go of Ellie and crawled on his hands and knees to the door entering the living room, and grabbed a shard of glass from the window. He heard footsteps come towards the door before it burst open and four men entered the house. Shane looked at Ellie and put a finger on his lips to signify for her to stay silent. One of the four men made his way into the living room, and saw Ellie lying on the floor.

"Finally." He said, holding his baseball bat high in the air. Shane creeped up behind him and plunged the shard of glass into the man's neck, and kicked the body onto the ground.

"Shane! Behind you!" Ellie yelled. Shane spun to see another man about to slash him with a machete, but he kicked it away with his foot and punched the man straight in the jaw. The other two had heard the commotion and were about to shoot Shane when a bullet went straight through one of the men's head. The other man aimed at where the bullet had come from, but was dead before he lifted his gun. Shane grabbed the remaining man and choked him out. The man slumped to the ground, unconscious, and Joel and Sara revealed themselves from upstairs.

"Why'd you leave him alive?" Joel asked, looking down at the man.

"Because I have a strong feeling that this guy knows where Louis is."

Half an hour later the man woke up in a wooden chair in a completely empty room; except for four people standing in front of him. One of them, a teenage boy, walked up to him.

"Good morning sunshine! Glad you could join us." The man started to struggle against the ropes that tied his hands behind the chair, but there was nothing he could do. "Can you tell me your name? It'd make everything a lot easier."

"Sam." He replied, pure hatred in his eyes.

"Well Sam, here's how it's going down. You tell me what I want to know, and I might not kill you. Are we clear on that?" No response came. Shane looked towards his three friends. "Joel, I need you to siphon some gas and bring it to me in a canister. Ellie, you get me a cable, some water and a pair of scissors. Sara, can you bring me a pistol as well? Much appreciated."

"Why do you want those things?" Ellie asked him.

"Just bring them to me, alright? And I'll have answers from this guy in no time." Ellie looked over at Joel, who just mouthed _do what he says._

A few minutes later the trio came back with the supplies, and they found that Shane had got a coffee table into the room. They set down the objects on the table and stepped back to the door. The first thing Shane picked up was the glass of water. "So Sam, where is Louis? Blonde hair, brown eyes, overcoat? No?" Shane threw the water on Sam, soaking him in it.

"Was that it?" Sam asked, smiling.

"Wait a second." Shane got the cable and plugged it into an outlet in the room, then used the scissors to cut the fairly long laptop charger half way. "So, where is Louis?" The man said nothing. "So be it." Shane turned the outlet on. He then slightly touched the man with it, causing electricity to course through his body. Shane took the cable away after a few seconds and threw it on the ground. The man started to twitch uncontrollably. Shane began to laugh at the man's pain. "You ready to tell me something yet?"

Through his twitching, the man said, "Fuck... you." Shane got the gun from the table and placed it on the man's left shoulder.

"Where is Louis already? You're just making this harder for yourself." Shane fired a bullet into the man, but it only penetrated an inch. Which was perfect. Shane put his thumb on the bullet, and began to push the bullet in further. Sam started to scream, causing Ellie and Sara to stand back in horror.

"Alright! Please stop, please! I'll tell you everything!" Shane stepped away from the man. "We got a camp set up at a bank to the west of town. You can't miss it. Can I go now?" Shane grabbed the gas container from the table and kicked the chair over so it was on its back. He unscrewed the cap and poured the entire can over him, and threw the empty container to the side of the room. "Ellie? Joel? Sara? You guys got your stuff packed?" They all nodded. Shane then proceeded to pull out a box of matches from his pocket.

"What the fuck man? I thought you'd let me live?" Shane then took out one of the matches and lit it.

"I said might." He dropped the match, and everything suddenly went in slow motion for Ellie. She watched the bright flames dance along the phosphorous from the match. The serious face Shane was making. The pleading of Sam. Then everything returned to normal speed. The match made contact with the gas on the man's skin, and he went up instantaneously. The terrible screams that followed could only be heard to be truly understood. Ellie looked at Shane, but it was like he…like he wasn't there anymore. He actually looked like he took pleasure from the man's screams. He slowly turned around to face the group. "We should go." Ellie put her hand on Shane's chest to stop him.

"Shane, is there something you want to talk about?" Shane looked her directly in her eyes, and she realized something; Shane wasn't there at the moment. Some demon had taken over him.

"This house is going up in flames. There is nothing I want to talk about." He told her in a deep growl, stepping around her. Ellie looked towards Joel, as if to say _when did he go from comforting to terrifying?_ All Joel did though was look blankly back at her, and proceed to walk out of the room. She gave a small sigh. Sara put her hand on Ellie's shoulder, and gave her a comforting smile. A lot like the one Shane would give her…

Louis hadn't time to worry about where Gerald was taking him, as his mind was on Daniel. Who was this guy? Why did Louis seem to trust him more than any sane person? These questions spun around his head like cartoon stars.

"Well, here we are!" Daniel announced. "Your temporary, yet humble, home." Louis snapped out of his train of thought and looked at where Daniel gestured to. It was a bank vault, at least he guessed.

"I'm sorry Louis, but you're going to have to stay here for the next night while we sort you out." Gerald told him.

"A.K.A we have to keep you locked away from society because you're fucking crazy." Daniel told him smiling.

"Really? You're going to pull that card?" Gerald rubbed his arm awkwardly.

"Sorry kid. Here" Gerald handed Louis a radio. "I can contact you inside the vault using this." Louis grudgingly accepted the gift.

"Alrighty then, get in there kid. Go on." Daniel pushed him into the vault. "All right!" He shouted into his radio. "Seal the vault up tight!" Louis heard the rusty gears come to life and a blaring sound coming from the speakers. As the door slid to a close, he saw Gerald with a sorry look on his face looking at him.

The door slid to a halt, leaving Louis at the mercy of the few lights that were suspended above him. He examined the parts of the room he could actually see. The walls were all lined with many deposit boxes owned by people long gone since the fungus. He slid his hands along the boxes, which were covered in dust from years of misuse. He ended up at the wall opposite the vault door, and sat down against the wall.

"I'm alone. For the first time in months, I'm alone not of my own accord. Alone with my thoughts…" Louis felt the presence of another man, one he knew all too well.

"What's up, squirt?" Louis looked up to his hallucination of his father.

"What are you doing here?" Louis asked spitely.

"Is that the greeting I get?" Louis looked at him angrily. "You do know why I'm here, don't you?"

"Fuck off. I don't need to resort to that."

"Louis, you can make me go away. It's really simple."

"It's not as simple as you'd like."

"I believe it is. All the hallucinations are gone with one simple action." Louis pondered for a second. "If you want to trip out, that's fine. But I know you wouldn't." He spoke the truth. Louis sighed and reached into his overcoat, pulling out the small knife he kept hidden. He then rolled up the right sleeve of his coat, revealing many of his past deeds. Many people would've recoiled at the sight of the scars, tried to help him. Six, he counted now. He placed the small knife on his arm, and began to slide it vertically down his arm. He winced at the first sign of pain, but he eventually finished and left a seven inch cut down his arm. Tears began to slide down his face, as did the blood down his arm. He rolled his sleeve back down, hoping the blood would not stain his coat. He burrowed his head into his arms, and continued to cry.

"Why don't the hallucinations go away?" He quietly said to himself. Maybe, just maybe, if he kept cutting himself once a week, the hallucinations would go away. He was startled when he heard the crackle of the radio Gerald had given him.

"_Hey Louis, you there?"_ A voice asked.

"I'm fine," he replied, holding back the tears.

"_It's Gerald. Is there anything you want to catch up on?"_

"I actually kind of want to know about life before the infection. Your life." No response came back for a few seconds.

"_Well alright then. I spent twenty five years alive before the infection, but I could start from when I was your age."_

"I'd like that."

_Shane could almost feel the tension in the air of the room. He kept his gun trained on his former master, his teacher, his friend. The motel's walls were lined with mould and ancient blood splatters from battles fought previously. Soon, this wall will be red with fresh blood of either Shane or his master._

"_How could you betray me like this, Shane? After everything I taught you! I fought for you, I bled for you, I would've died for you! I thought of you as a son!" His master yelled at him, a pistol aimed at Shane's chest._

"_I told you one day that I'd outgrow you. That one day the student would become the master!"_

"_You promised me Shane. Back when you came to this country. I took you under my wing. Why would you do this?"_

"_It's just the world we live in. If this didn't happen today, it would've happened some other time!" The light from a military helicopter's searchlight shined brightly through the window to the right of them. Shane was momentarily distracted, and his master used this to his advantage. He slapped the gun from Shane's hand, causing it to hit the wall, and pushed Shane onto the wall. He placed his arm at Shane's neck to keep him in place._

"_I am your uncle! Why would you do this?" Shane kneed him in the stomach, sending him backwards._

"_All things come to an end." Shane continued to grab his master by the collar and brought him over to the exit of the room. "I would like to thank you for your noble sacrifice. I couldn't of have escaped without you." Shane opened the door and pushed his master out into the chopper's view. His master gave him one last look before he was consumed by a volley of bullets. As Shane watched his former master's final moments come to an end with unblinking eyes, he comforted himself by saying, "It…needed…to…be…done…"_

Victor prepped himself for his report to Daniel. Out of the three of his group that had decided they needed to warn Daniel of a rumor, he had to be the one to warn the psychotic man because of a game of Paper-Scissors-Rock. Fucking luck would have it that it would be him. He walked up to the door that led into Daniel's office, formerly used as the bank manager's office before the infection, and looked at one of the two armed guards at the sides of the door.

"I gotta see Daniel." He told the guard.

"Hold up Victor. What's the reason?"

"Since when have we needed reasons? This isn't the White House! Just let me through." The guard narrowed his eyes at the fast pace Victor spoke at. "And don't call me Victor. That was my code name back in the army. My name's Tom." The guard gave him a smile.

"Whatever you say Victor-Victor-Alpha. Go right on in." Victor got annoyed, but continued into the room. He found Daniel sitting at his desk, his back turned to Victor, looking at a splatter of dry blood on the wall.

"Uh, Daniel sir?" Victor asked him. There was no reply, but Daniel did start to rest his head on his hand. "Sir?" Daniel held his hand up.

"Bup bup bup bup! I'm examining the artwork." Victor looked at the wall.

"Sir, that's blood."

"Oh. So it is." Daniel spun around in his chair to face Victor. "So what can I do for you, Victor?"

"Well sir, there's kind of a rumor going around about you."

"Is it about Zayne? Because that shit head has always had it out for me! I did not, and I repeat, did** NOT**, sleep with his mother!"

"Uh, no sir. One of the men eavesdropped on Gerald's meeting the other day, and says that Gerald is planning to get rid of you." Daniel's mouth shaped into a frown and he jumped up from his chair. Victor put his hands up, hoping Daniel wouldn't hit him too hard.

"That's bullshit! After all I've done for that Irish prick…" He looked at Victor. "Victor, I want you to spread the word to all men that are loyal to me that a revolution is upon them! I will give them orders when the time has come." Victor gave a nod.

"Yes sir." Victor knocked his hand on the desk to signify the end of the conversation, and turned on his heels and left the room. Daniel was crazy, there was no denying it, but he was a good leader. A competent leader. Something Gerald could never be.

Shane used the binoculars to scout the area around the bank. For a bandit camp, they were almost as fortified as a quarantine zone. The high iron walls kept out any and all infected out, there was a single gate that acted as an entrance to the bank, and he could see at least two dozen guards on the walls. He took the binoculars from his eyes and placed them back in the glove compartment of the minivan they had stolen from the dead bandit patrol. He walked around to the back of the van where the rest of the group was waiting inside.

"Alright, out." He commanded. The group exited the van and Shane grabbed a few of the guns that were left in the van. He handed a hunting rifle to Joel and a couple of pistols to the girls. He then proceeded to take out a shotgun for himself and placed it on the ground. He then made his way back into the driver seat of the van.

"Hey Shane," Joel called out. "What are you doing?" Shane pulled out a few blocks of C-4. "Where did you get that?"

"Found it in the van."

"Well, what are you going to use it for?" Shane threw the C-4 into the back of the van.

"What do you think? We've got to get in there somehow."

"I'd have thought we'd take a sneakier route in."

"We don't have time for that." He got a brick from under the driver seat.

"Kid, what's wrong?" Joel asked him, placing a hand on Shane's shoulder. "You seem troubled."

"I've been thinking Joel. Thinking about my life. Who I am, who I want to be. And I've decided." He hopped out of the driver seat and placed the brick on the accelerator. "I'm going to try and become someone a man would look at and run away from. Someone whose orders would be obeyed at the click of their fingers." He slotted the car key into the keyhole and turned the van on, sending it flying forward with the accelerator being pressed on by the brick. Shane pulled out the trigger for the C-4 and waited for the van to crash into the entrance, before he blew the van up. The whole thing went up in flames, taking the gate and several men with it.

"Goddamn, Shane." Sara commented.

"It got the job done, didn't it?" Shane walked down the road leading to the bank, followed by the rest of the group.

"…_So I got on one knee, looked her in the eyes, and gave her the bouquet of roses."_ Louis started to chuckle.

"So what'd she do?" Louis asked.

"_What do you think? She scoffed and walked off in the opposite direction. I had no idea what happened. But, the next day, I went back to the same spot, same time, and I waited for her there. When she came, I got down on one knee again, got the box out of my pocket, and I gave her the biggest diamond she had ever seen. She was so star struck, she had nothing else to say but yes." _

"You're kidding me? That's amazing."

"_Oh shit."_ Louis didn't like the sudden worry in his voice._ "Louis, I got a problem. There's a group of tourists that have entered the walls. A middle aged man and three teenagers."_ Louis nearly dropped his radio.

"Those are my friends! They must be here to rescue me!"

"_Well, your friends have already proven themselves capable. I'll give the order to capture a-" _Gerald was interrupted by the speaker system coming online.

"_Attention all men, attention all men, this is your lovely new leader Daniel speaking. This is regarding to any men still loyal to Gerald, you are ALL FUCKING DEAD! HAVE YOU GOT ME? Thank you, that is all."_ The speaker went silent.

"_Fuck! He must've caught wind that I was going to get rid of him. Louis, I'm gonna find your friends, then I'm coming for you. Alright?"_

"Alright." He replied into the radio.

_**POW!**_ Shane blasted one of the men back with his shotgun. Using the confusion from the gate incident, the group had managed to sneak past a lot of the men. Either the men seemed to run around pointlessly, or fight each other for some unknown reason. It took them a long time, making their way past the many men who guarded the entrance, but they eventually made it inside the bank through the front door, killing the two men who were guarding it. Shane turned to the rest of his group.

"Alright. Sara, you're with me. We'll go find that bastard leader of theirs. Joel, Ellie, you spread out and find Louis. You think you can do that?" Joel put his hand in front of him.

"I don't think we should split up. Bad choice." Joel told him. His eyes darted between Ellie and Sara.

"Why Joel? You think we can't handle ourselves?" Ellie questioned him.

"I ain't saying that."

"Then what the fuck are you saying Joel?" Shane gestured for him and Sara to leave, which Sara was glad to oblige to.

"I'm just saying it'd be safer. 'Safety in numbers' is what you said, right?"

"That doesn't mean I can't handle myself. Screw this, I'm finding Louis." Ellie passed around Joel, stomping off to find Louis.

"Fucking Joel." She told herself. "Why can't he just let me do this? I took care of him for a while! I can handle myself." Ellie sighed. "Maybe he cares too much." She heard footsteps behind her, and expected it to be Joel. But when she turned around, it wasn't Joel who was standing there. Another man instead stood there, smiling like he had just bagged a huge fish.

"Well, hello there. Are you lost little girl? Do you need your daddy? I can help you find him if you come back with me." Ellie pointed her gun at him. "Well calm down there cupcake." She kept her gun trained on him. "I said calm the fuck down!" The man smacked the gun out of her hands, and used his other hand to slap Ellie across her face. She fell to the ground, clutching her stinging face. "Don't worry. I can reunite you with your friend." The man said, stomping his foot on Ellie's face to knock her out.

Ellie woke up some time later to find her hands tied behind her back, and the man looming over her.

"Rise and shine, cupcake!" He told her, yanking her up onto her feet. "So, how's it going?"

"Who the fuck are you?" He waggled his finger.

"You really shouldn't use that language. I mean, c'mon. Let's keep it PG-13 here. My name is Daniel. What about you?"

"Fuck you."

"Well, your parents must've hated you then." He walked up to Ellie and yanked her hair. "What is your name?"

"It's Ellie." Daniel let go of her hair, and instead placed his hand on her back.

"Well Ellie, it's a pleasure to meet you. You came at a bad time though. I'm in the middle of a war. Well, more of a change of leadership." He began to slide his hand down her spine. "How I wish I could be back in Canada. Did you know that the infection had made a slightly lesser impact there? Don't know why I left. Maybe it was the gun laws, maybe it was the weather, maybe, just maybe, it was the women that resided in this country." He stopped his hand right before her ass. "Unfortunately, I don't have time for such pleasures right now. But come morning, I will." He gave her a wide smile and began to take her into somewhere. A vault by the looks of it. As soon as the vault was open, Daniel pushed her into it and said, "Enjoy your stay." Just as the vault slid to a close.

"Ellie, are you okay?" She turned around to see Louis standing in the middle of the vault. She ran up and gave him a hug.

"Thank god you're okay." She pulled away and stood there. "Who are these guys?"

"Would you happen to remember Gerald? Well, he's alive. Don't worry though; he's a good guy now. It's Daniel you have to worry about."

"Already met him. The dickhead's insane."

"Did he hurt you in any way? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. He took my jacket though. It's freezing in here!" Louis took of his overcoat and put it on her.

"Don't worry, I got you." The overcoat was a few sizes too big, stretching all the way down to her ankles. "That better?"

"Yeah, thanks." She noticed his slashed arm. "What happened to your right arm?" Louis jerked his arm behind his back.

"It's nothing." He mumbled.

"It sure as hell doesn't look like nothing. Show me your arm." She grabbed his right arm and pulled it out in front of her. She saw seven vertical cuts down the side of his arm. "Did…did you do this to yourself?" Louis gave no answer to her. "Louis, why? Just, why?"

"Because it keeps the hallucinations away."

"Louis, this isn't good. You shouldn't do this."

"Ellie…it's the only way to stop the violent hallucinations. I'd rather hurt myself than hurt someone I care about."

"You can't do this. It isn't like you."

"You wouldn't understand."

"I think I would." Ellie rolled up her sleeve, past the bite, up just past her elbow, and revealed a four inch cut on her slender arm.

"Ellie…"

"It was after I got bit. When Marlene found me. I couldn't get that memory out of my head. It just kept repeating and repeating, and in all the confusion, I saw my switchblade. It took ten seconds, but it gave me a clear mind. But only for a day. Then I realized that it couldn't solve anything, that it wasn't the answer." She rolled her sleeve back down, and walked over to Louis's backpack. "How long have you been doing this anyway?"

"One and a half months now."

"Jesus Louis." Ellie pulled out a half used roll of bandage, and walked back over to Louis. "Give me your arm." Louis extended his right arm and she grabbed it and started to wrap the bandages around it. "Louis, you have to promise me that you won't do this anymore."

"Ellie, I…" She gripped his wrist even harder and made him look her straight in her green eyes.

"Louis. Promise me." Something about her eyes told Louis she actually cared for his well-being.

"I promise." She took the bandages away and let go of his wrist. Louis shook his hand a few times to get blood circulating again.

"I've got enough to worry about without you anyway."

"Like what?"

"Like that Daniel guy. What the fuck is his deal?"

"What'd he do to you?"

"Hell if I know. All he told me is that he'll have time for his pleasures in the morning."

"Oh. Fuck Ellie, I feel bad to be in your position."

"Why? Do you know what's gonna happen?"

"Don't you?" She shook her head. "Well, my best guess is he's gonna…" He paused for a few seconds. "…Rape you." She cocked her head to one side.

"Rape?" The confusion in her voice worried Louis.

"You know. Sex without your permission."

"I've heard that word before. What does it mean?" Louis's face drained of all color.

"Please tell me you're fucking kidding." She shook her head again. _Abort Louis. Abort!_ "Uh, w-well, I-I-I-I..." _A-fucking-bort Louis!_ Louis looked away from Ellie and slid his hands through his hair. "No, no, n-n-n-n-n-n-n-no. I ain't talking about _that_."

"Why not?"

"Because I'd have to get into details, and I'd rather not."

"Details? Louis, you're sounding really crazy. Just, tell me what's going on." Louis gave out a deep sigh.

"Ah, fuck it. But, I have two things to say before I start. One: No laughing during this conversation or I'll stop it there and then. Two: Eventually I'm gonna get to the part about…" He looked Ellie's skinny figure up and down. "…what your body holds for you, so forgive my stammering." Ellie nodded. Louis gave a deep sigh and rubbed his hands together. "Alright then. Where do I even begin?"

Victor gestured for his friend to take point. His orders were simple: deactivate the electric fences to give Gerald some breathing room. Some would call Victor a traitor; and they were right. As loyal as he was to Daniel, the man was bat-shit insane, and that isn't the right quality for a leader. He kept his back to his friend and watched behind them, keeping his senses up.

"Max, what's the sit-rep?" Victor asked his friend.

"Nothing yet. Gerald's kept his promise in distracting Daniel's men." Victor wasn't the trusting type, even when it came to choosing leaders. But he knew he could always trust Max.

"You know, this reminds me of back in the army. Remember Washington?"

"How can I not?" His friend laughed. "You remind me of it nearly every day." Victor wished he could go back to his old life. Back to the military. But that was the reason he left anyway. All those rules and fucking procedures weren't for him. "Hold up." His friend told him, holding his hand up to halt progress. Victor peeked past his friends shoulder to see what he was looking at.

"What is it?" Victor asked.

"We got three tourists. One man, two teenagers. What are our orders?"

"Let's make contact with them. Don't fire unless told." Max nodded and stood up slowly. They both trained their guns on the trio as they made their way towards them. They got about five meters when they stopped in their tracks. "Halt!" Victor shouted, aiming his gun at the older man. The three of them turned around and looked at Max and Victor. "Who the hell are you?"

"Calm down. We don't want to hurt you." The older man told them, sliding his hand onto his pistol. Victor fired a warning shot beside him, causing him to put his hands in the air.

"What are you doing here?" Victor shouted at them. None of them answered. "Okay, how about this? Are you, or are you not, part of Daniel's group?"

"Who the fuck is Daniel?" Victor gave a grin to Max.

"That's good enough for me." Victor placed his shotgun back in his holster and held out his hand to the older man. "Name's Victor. Or Tom. Whichever you prefer." The older man shook his hand cautiously.

"How about Victor Tom?" Victor thought for a second.

"Guess that would be acceptable. Sorry about being so hostile before. We were just making sure you weren't Daniels men." He let go of the older man's hand.

"Who exactly is this Daniel guy? And why do you hate him so much?"

"I'll explain on the way."

"The way to where exactly?"

"To Gerald. The only sane person there seems to be."

It took an hour. The longest fucking hour in Louis's life. But he finally finished the most awkward conversation he had ever had. His throat felt really dry all of a sudden. He rubbed his neck a few times then sighed.

"And that's really it. Goddamn." He looked towards Ellie, who was trying to stifle laughter. "You can laugh now." That was the biggest mistake in Louis's life. Ellie burst out laughing, falling onto the floor in the progress. She went on like this for almost a minute before wiping a tear of joy from her eye and standing up.

"Okay, okay. You're bullshitting me, right?" She asked him.

"Nope. One hundred percent true."

"I don't know how you did it, but you have officially made this the most awkward moment in my entire life." Louis rolled his eyes at her, and lent back on one of the deposit boxes. Wait. An open deposit box.

"Holy shit." He looked into the box and gestured for Ellie to come over to him. '219' the box was labeled. He pulled out the belongings and set them all on the floor. The belongings included: a journal entitled '2013', a bottle of red wine, and a revolver loaded with a single bullet.

"So uh, should we read the journal?" Ellie asked.

"It kind of seems like an invasion of personal space…"

"Of a dead person?" Louis pondered for a few seconds.

"Who am I to have better judgment?" He gave her a smile and picked up the journal. He flicked a few pages and began to read out loud:

_May 7__th__, 2013_

_These reports are scaring me. Margret says that it's just media superstition, but I think it's something more, something real. First thing next week we're moving to my country home to wait out this 'pandemic'. But in the meanwhile, I proposed to Margret yesterday. She just seemed so happy. Well, what else was I supposed to do? She's been living with me for so long now, and she keeps dropping, what she says are, subtle hints. A.k.a she placed a bridal magazine on the doorstep and kept talking about how great her friends are doing in their marriages. I swear to god, that woman will be the death of me. That or old age. Those are two viable options. _

_May 9__th__, 2013_

_Nothing much today, except for a promotion at the station. All it means is a couple hundred more dollars in my paycheck and a shiny new title._

_May go-fuck-yourself_

_That's fucking right! The media were correct for once in their life span! It's a fungus apparently. Isn't that just great? I think this just might be the last entry in my journal. I have no idea where the hell Margret and I are going to go next. We might just have a go at surviving. But that doesn't mean I haven't got a plan B. If it comes to it, and Margret gets killed or infected or something, then pop goes my fucking head. I don't know if that'll be a worse option…or a better one._

Louis closed the journal and sat on the ground, throwing the journal to one side of the vault. Ellie went and sat beside him.

"Do you think he's still alive?" She asked him. Louis shrugged his shoulders.

"Is anyone really? He may as well not be. Living a life of fear and despair is not a life a human should live. Yet we seem to live it every day. Worrying that we're gonna wake up to find some Clicker standing above us about to sink his teeth into our flesh." Louis crawled forward and grabbed the gun. "Right now, I see two options as to what I can do. Option numero uno: I put this gun to my head, count to three, and pick up where that guy left off." He looked over to Ellie. "I'm not exactly a fan of that. Option two: you take the gun. Hide it in the overcoat. When Daniel tries anything on you, take him out." He placed the gun in Ellie's overcoat pocket, completely concealing it.

"Why don't you keep it?"

"Because maybe Sara was onto something. There are things in my past that I'd like to change. But I can't. All I can do is try to avoid them in the future." Ellie gave a slightly angered sigh.

"Why are you always like that? All poetic? Like it's your last day on Earth or something?"

"Because maybe it will be." He let a small smile slip. "Or maybe because it ropes me more ladies than I can handle." Ellie gave him a hard shove. "Ellie, there are two things that allow me to escape from the harsh reality of this world; my hallucinations, and books. My favorite types of books are apocalypse novels. Where there isn't a hero, nor is there a villain. Just a survivor trying to survive against all odds. Because I really do relate to them."

"What usually happens to the survivor?" Ellie asked him.

"They…they die. Trying to protect the ones they love usually."

"And that's how you see yourself?" Ellie looked down to the floor. "Then why give the gun to me?"

"Ellie… I never did actually say I stopped loving you. It doesn't work that way." Ellie wrapped her arms around her legs.

"Well that's what you told Sara."

"Oh. You heard that."

"Yeah. I did." There was silence in the vault, as Louis tried to think up a response or some sort of excuse. He decided to change the subject the best way he knew how.

"Things really got depressing fast, huh? Hang on a sec, Ellie." He grabbed something from Ellie's overcoat.

"You kept the smart phone?"

"Of course I did. You think I'd throw something like this away?" He began scrolling through the phone for a couple of seconds.

"Louis, what are y-"

"Hang on. Hang on." He eventually got a wide smile on his face, and music started playing from the phone's speakers. It was some stupid yet catchy pop song that Ellie hadn't heard before. Louis stood up and began to clap to the beat. "C'mon Ellie. Make the best of what time we got, am I right?"

"Louis, this is totally stupid."

"Exactly why you should do it. We're still teenagers, Ellie. We deserve to be stupid once in a while!" Ellie sighed and gave Louis a smile.

"Alright. Your such a sap, you know that?"

"A lovable sap, though."Ellie stood up and started to copy what Louis was doing. They both began to chuckle at a combination of how stupid they looked, and how, surprisingly, fun this was to them. Then Louis began to _see_ Ellie. Her beautiful green eyes. Her ragged autumn hair. Her warm smile. He had to stop this! He couldn't betray a promise…could he? Without even thinking, he crossed the gap between him and Ellie, grabbed her by the arms, pulled her towards him and began to kiss her. He felt her warm lips, and began to realize she was kissing him back. All of Louis's worries, his fear, his drama's were all gone, and all he could focus on was her. He slid his hand through her hair, feeling each and every strand. He pulled away suddenly, looking Ellie in her eyes. "Uh, sorry. It was kind of a reaction." Ellie smiled.

"You have nothing to be sorry for."

"By doing this, I've essentially broken my promise to Sara."

"What is it they say Louis? There's a first time for everything?" He went back in for another kiss, thinking of how he was getting out of this situation. What would he tell Sara? Joel, even? _Screw it, Louis. Enjoy the time you have._ That advice he was glad to follow.

Victor and Max led the tourists to Gerald, avoiding any and all of Daniel's men along the way. When they finally did manage to get to Gerald's safe area, the sight there shocked the tourists to their bones. Gerald had few men that were able to help him, whereas the rest were wounded from the ensuing battles between the two groups. They made their way up to Gerald's makeshift office, where he was sat at with his head on the desk.

"Gerald?" Victor called. Gerald took his head off the desk.

"What is it, Victor? I'm very busy."

"I can see that sir. On the way to the electric fence controls, we ran into a group of tourists. I believe their names were Joel, Sara, and Shane."

"Alright, bring them in." Victor gestured for the tourists to enter. Gerald saw a middle-aged man, and a teenage boy and girl enter. "Welcome, strangers. What brings you to our neck of the woods?"

"We came here for Louis. We got some information that he would be here." Joel told him. Gerald got up from his chair and walked around his desk.

"Joel, was it? That's true; the boy is in the bank."

"Then could you hand him back, so we can get out of your hair." Gerald gave a chuckle.

"It won't be as simple as that. You see, my friends, I am stuck in the middle of a war with that crazy fuck Daniel."

"Okay, I'm hearing a lot about this guy. Who the hell is he?"

"I'll tell you exactly who he is."

"_He's ruthless, uncaring for anyone but himself." _Daniel walked down the hallway towards one of his men who was fixing up the electricity towards the electric fences, and stood above the crouched man. _"He has no morals. He'll kill a child just for the fun of it." _

"So Hayden, buddy old pal, how's the electricity going?" Hayden stood up and looked at him.

"The whole circuitry's fried. If you want this thing up and running, it's going to take a few days." Daniel lost his smile.

"We don't have that time. Speed it up." He demanded.

"_Daniel is the sort of man that'll take his favorite animal in the world, and tear it in two."_

"I can't do that. If I could, I would." Daniel's mouth formed a violent frown, and he got up close to Hayden and grabbed him by his vest.

"I can't let Gerald win. I FUCKING CAN'T, YOU HEAR ME?"

"I'm sorry! Please you have to understand!"

"No, you fucking understand!"

"_Calling him insane doesn't even begin to describe him."_ Daniel pushed Hayden against the wall, and began to smash him against the wall. He then proceeded to throw him on the ground, and used his sneaker to stomp his head into a bloody pulp.

"I gave that man a position in power, and he took advantage of me. It was my mistake. Now listen, I can help you get Louis back from Daniel, but it isn't going to be easy. If you're willing to, you're able to stay here for the night."

"And you can promise me we'll find Louis, and we're free to go?" Joel asked. Gerald nodded in response. "Then we'll find Louis in the morning."

"Excellent."

_Shane permitted himself a smile. He was finally heading to America, the so called 'Land of the Free'. He could see for himself if this was true. Now all that was left to do was say goodbye to his friend, or more than friend, he had no freaking idea what it was like between them. He kept picking at the fire in front of him, warding away any cold that dared enter the area, with a medium sized stick, and eventually heard the door to the room open and saw Zoey enter the room. He gave a smile and stood up to greet her._

"_Well, this is it, huh Zoey?" Shane asked her._

"_I guess it is. We've had a good run though, haven't we?" Shane sat back down beside the fire and Zoey sat beside him. "When are you supposed to leave?"_

"_The boat leaves in twenty minutes."_

"_Why are you leaving anyway? Britain is an amazing place!" Shane gave a laugh._

"_If you consider gloomy weather amazing, then I guess it is. My uncle needs me there anyway to help with his rebel group. The Fireflies he told me they were called." He sighed. "It won't be the weather I miss here you know. It'll be you." She smiled at him. _

"_Aw, Shane." He decided he had to do it. He began to lean forward, but was stopped just before he could kiss her. "If only there were someone who felt the same about you."_

Louis awoke the next morning to the sound of an alarm and the vault door opening. He found Ellie held in his arms, rubbing her eyes from a long night's sleep. His memory was very fuzzy from last night. He let go of the empty wine bottle he and Ellie had drunk last night and carefully got Ellie off his lap. A man entered the vault, holding a glock pistol in his right hand, and pointed it at Ellie.

"Daniel wants the girl." Was all he demanded. Ellie looked at Louis, hoping he had some sort of plan or something, but he had nothing.

"Alright, I'm coming." She told the man, getting up onto her feet and walking towards him.

Ellie entered Daniel's office cautiously, keeping her hand in her pocket concealing the gun. The room was brightly lit by a few lamps dotted around the room, and the desk was lined with a nice, red silk cloth.

"Ah, Ellie. Glad you're here." Ellie heard Daniel say to her, entering his office.

"I didn't really have a choice."

"No, I guess you didn't. Come sit." He set down a couple of glasses of water he was holding on the table, and sat down behind the desk.

"Can we just…get this over with?" Daniel frowned.

"Get what over with?"

"You know." Daniel took a few seconds to register this.

"Oh, Ellie. I didn't get you here for that. Whatever made you think that?" Ellie scoffed at him.

"Maybe the conversation we had when we introduced ourselves."

"I didn't mean pleasures like that. I'll show you what I mean when you sit down." Ellie reluctantly sat down in the chair and took a sip of her water. Daniel rummaged through the drawers of a desk and pulled out a photo and handed it to Ellie. She looked at the photo, which showed a happy family, Daniel's family.

"Is this your…family?"

"Yes. That picture was taken four years ago, before they…" He trailed off.

"Why are you showing me this?"

"Look at my wife."

"She…she looks a lot like me."

"Bingo. They died a couple of years ago in the crossfire between the military and Gerald's men."

"Is that what made you go insane?"

"Yep a mundo. Seeing my wife and daughters get shot and die in the midst of battle, well, that'd make anyone crazy."

"You don't seem so crazy now."

"Because you're here. I don't know what it is, but I just see you right now and I see my late wife, my old life. I see my old students, my old classroom. I see everything from my past, and it just kind of…brings me back." He gave Ellie a warm smile, one he hadn't given anyone in a long time. "You look adorable in that overcoat, you know." He was interrupted by the sound of his radio cackling, and he picked it up.

"_Daniel sir, Gerald has been sighted in the perimeter. Should we get the chamber ready?"_

"Affirmative. I'll be there in a couple of minutes." Daniel stood up and went to exit the room.

"You aren't going to kill Louis, are you?" Ellie asked. Daniel stopped before the door.

"Ellie, when I exit this room, I cannot be held responsible for anything I do, alright?" Was the last thing he said before exiting the room. It must've been ten minutes of Ellie sitting in that room until she began to hear gunshots coming from just outside the door. She got up from her chair and got the gun out of her pocket, aiming it at the door. The door proceeded to burst open to reveal a blood covered Shane followed by Joel and Sara. She ran up to Shane and planted a kiss on his lips and pulled him into a long hug. There was a large silence in the air, as no-one really knew what to say. But Joel was silent for a different reason than the others; Ellie kissing Shane.

"Thank god you came." Ellie told them. "We need to leave now. Louis may be in big trouble."

Daniel finished strapping Louis to the wheelchair and moved over to the table that he had brought into the vault.

"What the fuck do you want from me, Daniel? I have nothing to tell you." Louis told him.

"Oh, but you see Louis, you do! Gerald gave you that radio, didn't he? And I have reason to believe you know his position. So, you want the easy way or the hard way?" Louis spit onto Daniel's face, causing him to annoyingly wipe his face down with his hand. "Good choice." Daniel pulled his machete from the table. "Tell me Louis; are you planning to get married in the future?"

"I guess." Daniel held his machete up high and struck down on Louis's ring finger. In one slice, the finger fell off Louis's hand and onto the ground, causing Louis to scream out in pain.

"Not anymore." Daniel gave him a smile.

"Fuck you Daniel. You're a cunt!"

"I guess I am." He sliced off Louis's middle finger on his left hand, causing him to scream out even more. "You ready to tell me something? Or do you really love the number seven?"

"I don't know anything! I swear!" Daniel brought his machete down again onto Louis's index finger on his right hand. He enjoyed this immensely, whereas Louis did not. He was interrupted from his torture session by one of his men tapping him on the shoulder.

"Sir, it's ready. Shall we send Gerald a message?"

"Gladly." Daniel put his machete down on the table and grabbed the handles behind Louis's wheelchair and started to push. "You know Louis, I admire your resilience toward having three fingers chopped off. Most full grown adults would cry and panic about only being able to count to seven. But you…there's something about you that I can't help but like."

"I don't suppose that makes you want to let me go?" Daniel let out a sinister laugh.

"It's only fair." Daniel pushed the wheelchair in front of a door with a green exit sign above it. "You can go, if you want. The exit is right there. Just get up out of that chair and walk away." Louis struggled with the wrist straps of the wheelchair. "C'mon, it's right there! I understand if you want to leave. No? Okay then." Daniel continued to push Louis's wheelchair onto a walkway above the pit of infected. Only problem was, the infected were nowhere to be seen. "Hey Curtis, where are all the infected?" One of Daniel's men jogged up to him.

"The electric fences went offline and someone cut the gate sir. They're roaming the bank at this moment." He told Daniel.

"Shit." Daniel cursed. "Then let's get this over with. Help me with him." Daniel and Curtis untied the straps around Louis's wrists and pulled him out of the chair. Curtis got a length of rope and bound Louis's hands behind his back. "It truly was a case of the wrong place at the wrong time with you Louis. If you look at it technically, Gerald's the one who got you killed." Daniel got a noose from one of beams above them and put it around Louis's neck.

"Fuck you Daniel. You're a murderer."

"Oh, au contraire, Louis. There is no such thing as murdering these days. The laws of the old world do not apply in situations like these. I'm sending a message to Gerald, a message that I'm stronger than him, more powerful than him, better than him. So you see, Louis; it isn't murdering anymore. It's called survival." Daniel gave Louis a smile and kicked him off the walkway. Louis fell down a few feet before feeling the tight rope wrapped around his neck start to choke him. He struggled, kicking his feet and swinging side to side. But nothing worked. Louis became weak, struggling for breath. His vision started to fade as he heard a couple of gunshots being fired, and screams above him. He would've blacked out if another bullet hadn't cut the rope that was hanging him. He fell down to the ground below him hardly, breaking his leg on impact. If he wasn't panting for breath, he would've screamed out in pain.

"Louis!" He heard a voice shout. He looked up to see Ellie running over to him, then sliding on her knees in front of him. "Louis, are you okay?"

"Let's see: I had…three of my…fingers chopped off." He said between breaths. "I…was nearly hanged to…to death. My fucking leg…is broken. So yeah…I'm fine." He chuckled.

"Well you don't have to be a dick about it! Or maybe you can save yourself."

"Very funny. Help me up." Ellie wrapped her arm around Louis's shoulders and lifted him up. He used her as a support, and they started making their way out of the bank. "How'd you escape?"

"With help from Joel, Shane and Sara. And this other guy, the guy Daniel's fighting with. Gerald I think his name was."

"Just…thank god you're all right."

"I'd be worrying about yourself if I were you. We can't take the front door, things littered with infected. We gotta go through the back."

"As long as we get out of here." Louis began to feel a headache rise up. No. Not now. When they entered the main building, Louis heard strange voices rushing past him, and figures from his mind began to spring up as he limped. He saw a figure of his dad.

"Don't worry squirt, I got you. I promise." The figure was wisped away into nothing.

"You stupid fucking kid. You've just screwed yourself!" He saw a hallucination Gerald say, before he too evaporated.

"You okay Louis?" He heard Ellie ask.

"Yeah, I'm fine."

After a period of unknown time to Louis, him and Ellie made their way through the back door and found that they were two stories up from the ground. Joel, Sara, Shane, and Gerald were stood in the distance with a couple dozen of Gerald's men.

"Finally. C'mon Louis, we're finally out of here." She let go of Louis and ran down the steps. Louis went to follow her, but before he could descend the steps he felt a cold barrel of a pistol on the side of his head.

"Stupid kid." Were the last words he heard before he felt a bullet pass through his skull. Everything slowed down for Louis, and he heard a loud ringing in his ears. He fell over the railing that he was supported on and onto the ground below.

"Louis!" He heard Ellie shout. He saw people gather around him, and felt Ellie grab his head and lift it up. "Louis, stay with me! Don't you fucking die! Please, do something! Say some sappy poem, tell me about your stupid past, do anything!" She began to sob when no reply came. "Please don't die." She held her head on his chest to hear some sort of heartbeat or pulse. But there was nothing. He wasn't breathing. She laid her head on his chest, and continued to sob. "Please, don't just die. Please…don't…die…"


	4. Trust

"_Victoria is wunderbar, but she is not my "Lebenslanger Schicksalsschatz." She's my "Beinahe-Leidenschaftsgegenstand"... it means the thing that is almost the thing that you want, but it's not quite. That is Victoria to me."_

"_How do you know she's not "Lebenslanger Schicksalsschatz?" Maybe as the years go by she'll get "Lebenslanger Schicksalsschatz... ier?" _

_"Lebenslanger Schicksalsschatz" is not something that develops over time. It is something that happens instantaneously. It courses through you like the water of a river after a storm, filling you and emptying you all at once. You feel it throughout your body, in your hands, in your heart, in your stomach, in your skin... have you ever felt this way about someone?"_

"_...I think so."_

"_If you have to think about it, you have not felt it." _

"_And you're absolutely sure you'll find that someday?" _

"_Of course. Everyone does eventually... you just never know when or where." Conversation between Ted and Klause, How I Met Your Mother._

Louis woke up with a frenzy, his head pounding at the same speed at his heart. He opened his eyes and found himself in a strange room, one that made Louis feel…calm. Inside the room there wasn't that much: just a clear glass coffee table, a clean white sofa that sat in front of the table, and a glass of wine that sat on the table. Louis looked at his hands and found that they weren't exactly healed; more like they were never cut off. He stood up from the carpeted floor and picked up the glass of wine. It looked freshly poured.

"If I knew I had a visitor, I would've left the tab open." Louis nearly fell down and broke the coffee table when the voice spoke up. He steadied himself on the table and turned around to the source of the voice. He saw a unusually handsome man, dressed up in a suit of the darkest black and a fedora of the same color. He gave a welcoming smile, the area around his mouth covered in stubble. "Can I offer you something? A beverage? I think I have some leftover spaghetti in the refrigerator." Louis was at a loss for words.

"I-I don't really feel hungry."

"Yeah, dying will do that to you." Louis's heart skipped a beat.

"I-I died? You're n-not serious, are y-you?" The man walked over and took the wine glass from Louis's hand.

"One hundred percent." Louis looked around the room in disbelief and rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

"Then…then who are you?" The man took a sip of wine.

"Me? My name was lost long ago. You mortals may know me as Death."

"You're bullshitting me?"

"Why would I?" Louis looked the man up and down.

"I thought you would've at least looked different."

"What? I'm sorry I don't dress like I do in your stupid churches, Louis." The man told him sarcastically. "I needed to adapt, you know? Didn't want to seem too frightening to new people." Louis walked over and slumped down on the sofa, placing his feet up on the coffee table.

"Well what is this place then? And how do you know my name?" Death sat down next to Louis and placed his glass down on the table.

"This is purgatory, the place that you have to wait while I find out whether you go to heaven or hell. And I know your name because I'm Death. I know the name of everyone in the world."

"Everyone?"

"Along with their personal information."

"So this is real? I'm…actually dead?" Death nodded.

"I'm afraid so. I wouldn't worry about the heaven and hell thing though. You're a Christian, you've left behind a legacy as a good guy, you're practically a shoe in for a spot in heaven."

"That's the thing, I didn't want to die! There must've been some kind of mistake!" Death clicked his fingers and a flame appeared, eventually dissipating to reveal a folder entitled 'Louis Henderson'. He opened up the file and showed it to Louis.

"Louis Henderson, deceased as of April 26th, 2034. Dead from a bullet wound through the cerebrum of the brain. Final moments spent in the arms of one Ellie…" He squinted at the paper. "Hmm, don't seem to have her last name on file. To cut a long story short, you were shot through the head and now you're dead." Louis ran his hands through his hair.

"There has to be some way to reverse that! I can't just die!"

"I'm afraid it doesn't work that w-" He stopped talking and looked further down the folder. "Are you schizophrenic?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"We may have a problem."

Ellie had stopped crying hours ago. Now she just sat next to Louis's cold body that had been laid on a mattress by Gerald. She looked up at Joel, who sat across from her, and Shane and Sara, who sat at the foot of the bed. No one had spoke for the hours since Louis's death. Since his heart had stopped beating and his breath silenced. She decided to step up from Louis's side and walked through the camp that Gerald's men had made up to the master tent where Gerald slept. She opened the tent flap and stood in front of the shooter, the bastard that had killed Louis, Daniel.

"Well, hello there. This isn't exactly helping my argument that I'm a good guy, is it?" Ellie went up and punched Daniel in the abdomen. He keeled over and coughed, but Ellie put her hand under his chin and lifted his head up.

"You can never be forgiven for what you have done. I fucking hate you." She let go of his chin and pulled out her switchblade.

"I know that. That doesn't mean I regret it." Ellie placed the blade at his throat.

"One more comment like that and you can join Louis." Shane had entered the tent now and pulled Ellie away from Daniel.

"Ellie, I know he killed Louis, but you can't do this." He pulled the switchblade from her hand. "Me on the other hand, I can." He walked up to Daniel and looked him in his fearful eyes. "You're a fucking son of a bitch. A Satan to walk the earth." Daniel gave a chuckle.

"Am I? I certainly don't consider myself that. I'm just a man trying to get by."

"And that means killing a fifteen year old?" Daniel formed a small smile.

"I only do what is necessary." That was the last straw for Shane. He calmly grabbed Daniel's head and pulled it up to face him, then he swung the switchblade down on Daniel's ear, causing him to scream out in pain. Shane held the ear in front of Daniel, tormenting him. "Just kill me! Get revenge for Louis!" It was Shane's turn to laugh.

"It won't be that simple. I need to make sure that I hear you scream as I carve your flesh, the look on your face, I need my revenge." Shane looked back at Ellie for confirmation that he could do this, and she gave him a nod. "And I know how to start." Shane got the ear between his thumb and his forefinger, and stabbed Daniel in the leg to open his mouth in agony, then shoved the ear in Daniel's mouth. "Start chewing." Daniel, instead of fearing for his life, smiled and chewed gratefully. When he swallowed, he spit out some leftover blood in his mouth and looked at Shane.

"If I knew I was getting a free meal, I would've killed the blonde boy earlier." Shane flipped the chair over in anger and crouched down next to it.

"You are sick. People like you don't belong in this world."

"You mean survivors? Face it kid, we all need a way to get by in this world. Just because we have different ways, does not mean we are so different." Shane chucked the switchblade back to Ellie and got up. He walked up to Gerald, and whispered into his ear so Daniel did not know what was coming. Gerald nodded and paced quickly out of the tent, returning a few minutes later with a table full of tools.

"You know what my favorite thing is about people like you? I get a reason to express myself." Shane pulled a pair of pliers from the table and walked back over to Daniel. "So, any recommendations?" Daniel smiled.

"Take a pick." Shane grabbed one of Daniel's teeth with the pliers and slowly yanked it out. He let the tooth drop to the ground and looked back to Daniel.

"Your breath really stinks, you know?" Daniel spit a glob of blood in Shane's face, causing him to fall back onto the floor. "Bloody hell!" He yelled out.

"Heh heh. What are you, British? Maybe that's why you think you're better than me."

"Fuck you. You aren't in the position to insult people right now."

"No, I think I am. In fact…" Daniel looked past Shane at Ellie. "You want to know something Ellie? It is _your _fault that Louis is dead! You had all the chance to stop me back in my office, with that gun hidden in your coat, but you did nothing!" Shane pressed his arm hard onto Daniel's throat to get him to stop talking. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked back to see Ellie standing over him, gesturing for Shane to let go of Daniel's throat. Shane obeyed and stepped away from Daniel, allowing Ellie to crouch beside him.

"Daniel, why are you like this? You showed me a side to you I didn't expect back at the office. I can never forgive you for what you did. Where did you go?"

"Ellie, that side died a long time ago, when I held my dead wife in my arms. People have their own ways of dealing with death, just like I have mine. I find satisfaction in the deaths of other people. It's how I've survived." Ellie and Shane heard gunshots, not too far from the tent. Gerald grabbed his assault rifle and started out the tent. "Well, would you look at that? My ride seems to be here."

"What do you mean a problem?" Louis asked. Death flicked through the pages a few times.

"This can't be happening. I need to hurry up that result." Death got up from the couch and put the folder in his suit jacket. He then got out a Blackberry phone from his pocket and called a number. "Hey, buddy." He said nervously into his phone. "Yeah, I've got Louis Henderson here and it turns out I need you to speed up that choice! Why? Well because the boy's a fucking schizophrenic! And I'd rather not be around when-hello? Hello?" He threw his phone to the ground.

"Who was that?"

"Just the fucking greatest being in the universe, God himself!" He rubbed his forehead in frustration. "We need to go."

"Why?"

"Because-" Death was interrupted by the sense of a figure standing behind him. "Because of him." Louis looked past Death at the newly formed figure, who was clad in a hooded jacket and a pair of denim jeans, and saw him start to look at his ghostly white hands. The figure looked up at Death, then at Louis.

"Oh happy days, oh happy days! I've been waiting so long for this day to come!" Louis stood back out of fear for the figure.

"Who a-are you?" He stammered out. The figure gave him an evil smile.

"Me? I am the physical embodiment of your schizophrenia!"

"You're m-my schizophrenia?"

"I know! Isn't it amazing? For years I have been locked up, deep down in that fucking mind of yours. Do you know how bored I've been; only being able to operate at the smallest capacity possible? But now, now, I'm free!"

"I can't believe this is happening!"

"Well fucking believe it Louis! I am your darkest fear, I am your devil on your shoulder telling you to do bad things, I am YOU!" The figure stopped for a second. "And most importantly, I…AM…FREE!" Louis wanted to run, but something was holding him to the ground. The man slowly but menacingly walked up to Louis, and stood just a few inches from him. Yet he did nothing after.

"W-what's gonna happen now?" The figure smiled, and opened his mouth to say something, but before he did, he was pushed back from Louis by a force stronger than himself. He flew across the room, splattering on the wall. He fell from the wall onto his hands and knees, and looked up to face his attacker, who was none other than Death. Louis could move his legs again, and used his new ability to move next to Death. "You're going to help, then?" Louis whispered to Death.

"Oh, no. This is your fight. I was just giving you some breathing room, and I wanted to wish you good luck."

"Good luck?! I'm fighting this guy? What happens if I lose?"

"I wish I could tell you. Just…don't." And with that, Death disappeared from the room, leaving Louis alone staring at the physical form of his disorder. The figure rose onto his two legs, the smile not leaving his face.

"It's just you and me now." He told Louis, forming a machete from nothing in his hands. "Your move, Louis."

Ellie kept behind Shane, her pistol held out in front of her and over Shane's shoulder. She holstered it when no-one came through the tent flaps and walked back over to Daniel. She got out her switchblade and cut the ropes tying Daniel's arms behind the chair, and placed her gun on his forehead.

"These men aren't here to save you, are they?" She asked him.

"How'd you call my bluff?" Daniel asked back.

"Because no-one would want to save your insane ass." Daniel let out a chuckle.

"Maybe you're smarter than you look." Ellie pulled the gun away from Daniel's forehead and lifted him up. Shane took one look and pointed his gun towards Daniel.

"What are you doing?" He hissed to Ellie.

"Don't worry. He knows he needs us as much as we need him."

"But the bastard killed Louis!"

"And we will deal with that when we have dealt with the situa-" A volley of bullets ripped through the tent, causing the three of them to fall to the ground to avoid the bullets. "Shit! Shane, we need to get out of here! Hand a gun to Daniel!"

"What? You're fucking crazy!"

"Just do it! He's the best fighter of us here!" Shane reluctantly pulled a shotgun from his back holster and slid it over to Daniel.

"You better know what you're doing, Ellie!" They all got up when the bullets stopped coming and ran out the tent flap. Ellie ran ahead of Shane and Daniel, allowing Shane to slow Daniel down. "Just be mindful; I always have a gun pointed to your back." Daniel nodded and continued on, Shane following close behind.

Victor kept his gun trained on Gerald. He had so much power at the moment. Yet Gerald did not realize it. The power to end his life, with one gunshot. One bullet. He gave a smile as he shot a bandit with a machete held high running at Gerald. He quickly loaded another bullet and shot again at another man. A lot of people wanted Daniel and Gerald dead, why, Victor did not know. Joel ran up beside him and took cover behind the same sandbag barricade Victor was behind.

"Where are Shane and Ellie?" He yelled over the gunfire.

"Gerald left them with Daniel! I have no idea what happened to them after that!" A gunshot whizzed past Victor's head, way too close for comfort.

"How many damn bandits did you guys have here?" Joel fired a few shots from his hunting rifle.

"Hell if I know! It goes well into the hundreds though!"

"Really? We only have a couple dozen here!"

"This place needs a lot of fucking maintenance! You wouldn't believe it!" Victor looked over at his friend Max just across from him, who was loading a car trunk full of C-4. "Max! What the fuck are you doing?" Max looked across to him, and closed the trunk.

"Creating a distraction! We don't have many men left, Victor. This should create a gap in their attack." Max opened the driver side door and sat in the car.

"Max! Don't do anything stupid!"

"This isn't stupid! More like heroic!" Max gave his friend a smile and closed the door. The car suddenly jolted to life, and began accelerating forward at the bank back entrance. Victor stood up from his cover and let his rifle drop to the ground. The car smashed into the back entrance, creating a blinding explosion on impact. Victor, Joel, Gerald, and all the men around them fell to the ground from the shockwave. Joel slowly sat up after a few seconds and rubbed his head.

"What just happened?" He asked Victor.

"He's given us a distraction." Victor replied, jumping up to his feet. He reacted quickly, running at the confused men that lay on the ground and the few men that were standing up. He grabbed his knife out of his pocket, and grabbed one of the men standing up. He plunged his knife into the man's chest, and bent him over so he could shoot past him. Grabbing his pistol and aiming it over the man, he shot and killed three men that were desperately trying to get up from the ground. He threw the man to the ground and reloaded his pistol, the old clip falling to the ground, and ducked into a tent next to him. Victor went prone and crawled forward so he could see under the tent at the attacking bandits. He fired shots at the feet of a few of the men, causing them to fall to the ground out of pain. He rolled under the tent and crouched onto his hands and knees, before standing up and shooting at the attackers.

Louis put out his arms to block the first swing of the figure's machete, as it was the only thing he could do right then. The machete swung down hard, and cut Louis's arms deeply. He then kicked the figure back and ran back to the sofa, ducking behind it to hide himself. The sofa was tipped over by the figure, causing Louis to roll over to avoid another swing of the machete.

"You can't run from your fears Louis. I know everything about you. Your fighting style." The figure stomped at where Louis was meant to be, but missed. "Your love life." He stomped and missed again. "Your secrets." He stomped and caught Louis's hand under his foot. Louis tried frantically to get it out, but with no luck. "You were just a body in my control. You did my willing. Now I don't need you!"

"Yes you do!" Louis grunted. "You're nothing without me!" The figure chuckled.

"Don't you know? If I kill you here, I take your place up in heaven. And you stay here, in the darkest reaches of your mind!"

"My mind?" Louis whispered to himself. "Your right. This is my mind!" Louis lifted the figures foot just high enough so he could pull his hand out, then rolled onto his feet. He held out his hand, causing David's machete to form in his hands. He pointed it at the figure. "This is my mind! And I will be damned if you are gonna take it from me!" He ran at the figure and lashed his sword at him. The figure blocked it though, and pushed Louis back. He then swung at Louis, but Louis jumped back before the machete hit him. Louis continued to dodge the angry and sloppy strikes, and eventually countered him by kicking the figure's arm so he dropped the machete. He then swung at the figure's left leg, causing him to fall to his knees. Louis went to swing a final time, but the figure blocked the machete with his forearm.

"You can't win, Louis. I control you!" Louis smiled.

"Well maybe it's time for a change of leadership." He dropped the machete from his left hand, which was still blocked by the figures arm, into his right hand just under it. As soon as he got a grip on the machete, he plunged it into the figure's abdomen. The figure grunted, and leaned over to Louis's ear.

"This won't get rid of me. I'll still be with you whether you're alive or dead. You can't get rid of me." The figure started to fade away, red petals of a rose taking away his clothes and skin. "I will never leave you Louis. I promise you that. And since I am you, I keep my promises." Then he disappeared, a single rose in the place where he stood.

Ellie got up on her knees, her ears still ringing from the explosion. What the fuck could've caused that? She hazily looked behind her and saw a figure slowly making his way towards her. She thought it was Shane, but it was actually Daniel that came forward.

"Ellie? Are you alright?" Ellie heard him say over the ringing.

"I-I'm fine! Where the hell is Shane? He was right in front of us!" Daniel stood a few feet away from her.

"Shane, he…he…" Daniel trailed off.

"Where is he?" Daniel closed his eyes and swallowed some saliva.

"Shane's dead, Ellie! The explosion killed him!" Ellie lost all color to her face.

"No…" Daniel took a step forward.

"I felt no pulse. He wasn't breathing! Don't you understand now Ellie? It's your fault that they're both dead!" Ellie put her hands on her face, trying to comprehend what Daniel was saying. Daniel saw Ellie's back turned to him, so he pulled out his pistol and cocked it. "Carol, I'm sorry. For letting you down. But you will have a new friend up in heaven." Daniel whispered, pointing the gun at Ellie. He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger, and when he opened them, Ellie was not in front of him anymore. She was to the right of him now, another body to the side of her. Shane's body.

"Shane?" Ellie whimpered. "Shane?" She got up onto her knees again next to Shane and started to shake his body. "Shane, wake up! I can't have you dead as well. Please!" Gerald, Sara, and Joel had gathered around now, Victor coming a few seconds after. She was about to cry when she saw his mouth smile.

"You didn't think…a bullet would be the end…of me, did you?" He asked her jokingly, his fake American accent reverted back to his British accent.

"Oh, thank god!" She gave him a tight hug, and lifted him so he sat up. She then looked towards Daniel, who was standing there dumbfounded.

"I…I…I…" He was at a loss for words. He had lied to Ellie about Shane's death, then attempted to murder her, but instead almost killed Shane for real. He dropped the gun, and looked at his hands. What had he become since the death of his family? Maybe he was a monster. He looked back up at the group, at the mixture of looks on their faces. He picked his gun back up. "I'm so sorry. I'm gonna join you soon, Carol. Soon." He placed the gun on the side of his head, and pulled the trigger.

Death appeared in front of Louis, the Blackberry held to his ear.

"No, I'm fucking serious! I'll eagerly await your decision." He hung up the phone and looked over to Louis. "Nice job, kid! You're the first one to ever do something like that! Not in my millions of years of living would I expect that!" Louis sighed.

"So is that it? Am I just supposed to end my chapter of this story?" Death put his hand on Louis's shoulder.

"I got to admit Louis, if it were up to me, I'd let you live again." Louis sighed. "Then again, it isn't exactly uncommon for me to lose a death file on a person." Louis's file appeared in Death's hand, and proceeded to go up in flames. "Whoops." Louis smiled.

"You're seriously giving me another chance? Why would you do that?" Death let go of Louis and walked over to the sofa.

"I don't really know. Maybe it's because it was impressive seeing you do that. Maybe I want you to live for some plan I have for the future. Or maybe it's just because I can." He sat on the couch with his legs crossed.

"I don't know how to thank you. All I can say is I'm glad that you aren't like how people imagine you." Death gave Louis a smile as Louis turned his back to him. "Just one more thing though?" Louis turned around to face Death again.

"Yes Louis?"

"You can predict the future, can't you?"

"I believe I can. Why?"

"Well, in the world of the living, I kind of have a big choice to make." Louis paused for a few seconds. "To make a long story short, who am I supposed to be with exactly? Between Sara and Ellie?" Death shook his head.

"I'm afraid that is classified information, Louis. I just can't tell you that."

"Of course you fucking can't." Louis mumbled

"If you're that desperate for an answer, we could always leave it to chance?"

"How so?" Death formed a coin in his hands.

"Heads, you're meant to be with Ellie. Tails, you're with Sara. What do you say?"

"Fine, whatever. Just flip the coin." Death flipped the coin in the air, and let it fall onto the ground. Instead of landing on one of the two sides, the coin instead landed on the middle bit that separated the two sides. "You're fucking with me, aren't you?"

"It's what I do best." Death smiled and clicked his fingers, and everything went black for Louis.

Ellie pulled Shane up with her, and Shane placed his hand on his stomach where he had been shot.

"God blimey, this hurts like crap." He said through his cockney British accent. Gerald walked over and checked Shane to see how bad the bullet had hit.

"It'll hurt like hell, but you'll be fine with some medical attention." He let go of Shane and stepped back. "What's up with the accent, anyway?"

"All natural. Born and raised in Bristol up in England." Gerald gave a small smile.

"Dublin myself. Why'd you use that American accent then?"

"Don't you ever get annoyed of people asking you to say certain words?" Gerald chuckled at that.

"At times. Anyway, we should probabl-" Gerald was interrupted by a gunshot through his back and out his stomach. "Shit!" Joel and Sara started shooting at the direction of the bullet, where a single man seemed to remain. He was quickly taken down. Gerald held his stomach, attempting to stop the bleeding. Victor ran over to him, and put Gerald's arm around him.

"You guys go patch up Shane. I'll handle Gerald." He told the rest of the group. That was when he heard more footsteps, and expected it to be another damned bandit. But there wasn't a bandit that stood there. Instead, Louis stood there; his seven fingers all covering his head. The rest of the group saw him, and were left speechless at how he was even alive, let alone standing. Louis felt confused.

"Are you guys okay?" No-one responded. "Why are you all staring at me like that?"

Victor set Gerald down on the sofa in the tent, which was lit by a series of candles. He then pulled off his backpack and rummaged through it, pulling a roll of bandages out of it.

"Thank god I have you Victor. You've always been loyal to me." Victor smiled and walked back over to Gerald, before throwing the bandages to the side of the tent.

"Oh Gerald, if only that were true." Gerald narrowed his eyes.

"What?" Victor walked to the side of the sofa, running his hand along the dust laid armrest.

"You really weren't as smart as I thought you were Gerald. That's really quite disappointing." Victor used his right thumb and pointing finger to put out a flame from one of the candles. "I never told you why I was kicked out of the military, did I? Attempted assassination of a superior officer. Why would I do this? For a promotion of course!" Victor put out another candle. "I saw potential in your bandit group, potential of another chance at power. So I proved myself loyal, and I started to plot on how to get rid of you. Then that crazy fuck Daniel came along, and my entire fucking plan had to be rethought." Another candle put out. "We then came here, established a steady defense, and I decided it was finally time for a course of action. I lied to Daniel, telling him that you were planning to cut him out of the group. The original plan was that you two would gain half the group each, and end up killing each other, so I would be left to pick up and reassemble the shattered pieces of the group. Instead, Daniel killed himself, and now I can just leave you here to bleed to death so I can now assume the leader of the dozen or so men left now."

"The others will be suspicious, especially Louis. You could never defeat them." Victor lifted Gerald's head up so he looked at him.

"No,_ you_ can never defeat them." He let go of Gerald's head. "I, on the other hand, will end up killing them all. Especially that blonde boy. But all that will come in time. Right now, I have to announce your death and my new leadership role to the men." He got his gloves out of his backpack and put them on, then pulled out his knife from his holster, and walked back up to Gerald.

"You'll never get away with this!" Victor held his knife up above Gerald.

"But Gerald, I already have."

"Ow!" Louis exclaimed, feeling Sara examine the bullet hole in his head.

"Oh, quit being such a baby." Sara told him. Sara had brought both him and Shane into the tent that they had put Louis's body in when he was dead to examine the both of them. She let go of Louis's head, took a step back and let out a high pitched whistle. "I don't know how the fuck you survived that. Bullet wasn't a hollow point, so it stayed in your head after being fired. Caused a lot of damage. Right now, you should be dead. It is mighty impressive you still walk the Earth." She gave Louis a quick kiss on the cheek. "I am glad you're alive though." She walked over to Shane. "Gerald was right about you. The bullet will hurt for a few days, but otherwise you're fine."

"Well it's still bloody hurting, innit?"

"I still can't believe you didn't tell me you were English. It would've been great to know." Louis told him.

"It wasn't something I liked telling people."

"Well I think it's cool. I kind of like that accent."

"Well thank you." Victor entered the tent at that moment, a grim look on his face.

"Victor, what's wrong?" Louis asked.

"Gerald, he…he didn't make it. He bled out before I could patch him up." Louis sighed.

"Of course he didn't. What will you do now Victor?" Louis asked.

"Try and patch up what's left of the group. See if we can't get back into the old routine again."

"Well, good luck with that, I guess. Say, you haven't seen Ellie, have you?" Victor thought for a second.

"Yeah, I think she went back up into the vault. Don't know why, though." Louis went to get up, but Sara stopped him.

"No, you're not in good condition. I'll go find Ellie and bring her back here, alright?" Louis sighed, then nodded. He lay back in his bed, and watched Sara go off to find Ellie.

Sara looked everywhere to find Ellie, but it was like she had disappeared off the face of the Earth. She almost gave up until she spotted Joel wandering around the upper levels of the bank.

"Yo Joel, you seen Ellie anywhere?" She asked him. Joel threw his hands up in the air.

"She's up in Daniel's office. I've been trying to get her out of there for fifteen minutes. I have no idea what is wrong with that girl." Sara thanked him and went over to Daniel's office, and tried opening the door. Locked. She then tried knocking on the wooden door, but was met with no response.

"Ellie? You in there?" She still heard no response. Sara put her ear to the door. "Ellie, I know you're there. Joel told me that you would be here."

"Go away." Was the response Sara got. Sara sighed.

"Ellie, what's wrong?"

"Just go away. I don't want to talk about it." Sara lent her back against the door and crossed her arms.

"Just let me in so we can talk."

"I don't want to talk, Sara."

"Can you at least tell me what's wrong?" No noise came from the room for a few seconds.

"I almost lost both of them today Sara. I just…got so scared and vulnerable."

"Let me in, Ellie. We can just ta-"

"No. I need time to myself." Sara sighed and slid down the door so she sat down, still lent against the door.

"Ellie…why can't you just let me in? I thought we were friends…" The lock clicked and the door opened, causing Sara to fall onto her back. She looked up at Ellie, and wiped some hair from her eyes.

"Fine. If you want to talk, then we'll talk." She held her hand out for Sara. "It's what friends are for, right?"

Epilogue

"Well Gerald, I guess this is my final good-bye." Victor whispered to Gerald's cold corpse, which still lay on a sofa inside one of the tents. "The others have asked me to give you a honorable death; a Viking funeral, so to speak. I would've thrown your body in a ditch if it had been my choice, but alas, they wouldn't have it. This is just a waste of gas if I ever seen one." Victor tipped a small bottle of gas onto Gerald's body and tossed it to the side. "You want to know something? I'm acting a lot like Daniel. Betrayal, insanity, the whole lot. I can only pray to God that I don't end up like the crazy bastard. Or maybe I'm praying to the wrong guy. Satan might be the one to talk to about this. Or maybe there isn't anyone to pray to, but I would have to hope that I live to a ripe old age." He sighed. "That group seems to be a problem though. I don't give a crap if they have done nothing to me, but I have to maintain my reputation as one of the most fearsome bandit to roam America. When I have deemed it time, I will take them out." Victor pulled Gerald's M16 from its holster. "With your very own gun. But that will be a problem I will deal with when it arises. I can promise you that." Victor pulled a box of matches out of his belt, and lit one. "And in fire, all your sins shall be purged. Isn't that what you said Gerald?"

Louis sat on a sandbag barricade just outside the tent, watching the fire consume the tent that Gerald lay in. He noticed Sara approaching him.

"What's up?" She asked him.

"I can't believe he's dead. Gerald didn't deserve what happened to him."

"You know, it's kind of suspicious. A gunshot like the one he sustained shouldn't of have killed him."

"So what are you saying?"

"I'm saying that Victor didn't seem as devastated as he should've been at the death of his 'close friend'"

"You think Victor might've murdered him?"

"Anything can happen." Louis reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes and his lighter. "You really shouldn't be smoking right now Louis." She lightly touched the bandage she had wrapped around Louis's head.

"It'll be all right." He assured her. He attempted to light his cigarette, but his lighter refused to turn on. He threw the thing to the side and groaned.

"I got you." Sara pulled out a lighter from her jeans and lit his smoke for him.

"Thanks." He took a draw and passed it to her, and she gratefully accepted it. "Sara, there's something I gotta tell you." Sara passed the smoke back.

"And what's that?"

"Back in the vault, when I was trapped there with Ellie, I…I kissed her." Sara looked at him.

"You what?"

"I'm so sorry Sara. It was just a spur of the moment, an impulse. Like I cou-"

"Will it happen again?"

"Hmm?"

"I'm asking if it will ever happen again. Can you promise me that it was just an impulse? That you really don't have feelings for her?"

"My promise ain't got no meaning anymore. Never the less, it will not happen again. Now that I know she is with Shane, it won't happen again. I can't betray my best friend like that, and more importantly, I can't betray you. I promise."

"That's good enough for me then." Louis gave her a smile.

"Awesome. Anyway, how long until I have to take this bandage off?"

**Whew, that was a close one. Louis almost died there. But then again, he is a very important character, so I wouldn't kill him off…OR WOULD I? Jk, I wouldn't do that. Anyway, that's another part of the story finished. Keep a watch for the next story, 'The Resistance' in about a week. So…yeah.**


End file.
